Girl Racer
by jane1229
Summary: Continuation of Mysterious Patient.
1. Chapter 1

Quinn waited to hear the whir of the engines on their first lap of the race. The first lap of the Indy 500 was special. She imagined coming out of the first turn and accelerating, and knowing you were starting on the 500 mile race. Coming in last would be a thrill, if you could say you had raced in it.

The pack came around the bend with a great zoom – engines humming, they would soon be moving at more than 200 m.p.h.

Helio Castroneves from Brazil won the race. One woman drove in it; Sarah Fisher, who started ninth, and came in twenty-fourth. The race ended under the caution flags.

Quinn had never enjoyed the race so much. And everyone she loved best in the world was with her. That night at dinner everyone dissected the race and talked about the controversy over another racer who had passed Castroneves under the yellow flag, but who insisted he had already passed and that therefore, he was the real winner.

"Not like the old days, when telling who won was not a big problem," Joe Quinn said. He was Quinn's godfather and had even worked in the Pit Crews at Indy in the 1950s. He had been able to show them around and tell them all sorts of things that they couldn't show you at the Racing Museum.

Quinn's boyfriend Zander and his brother Peter were there. They had never been to the Indy race before, and were full of questions for Joe.

"I don't know if they'll let you go up to Notre Dame by yourselves," said Quinn's mother, Kathleen, who sat next to her. "They'll follow you in hopes of getting to drive Zander's car again."

"Everybody had their chance," Quinn said, laughing. "And Peter got to have his little joke turning off on that side road as if he and the boys were making off with the car."

The boys were Quinn's brothers, Tim, who was 17, like Peter, who would be 17 in a few weeks, and Brad, who was 14. 

Quinn's father, Danny, had heard, and said, "Here's the plan: you two get that pilot of Oksana's to take you to South Bend, and we will make sure the Porsche gets home all right."

"We will take very good care of it," Peter said with a grin.

"No, I wouldn't trust them, Zander," Joe said, mildly. "You'll never see them again."

"You bet," Tim said. "We'd be on our way to California. The beach. The chicks."

"Well, I think not," Zander said, trying to be in on the joke, but feeling oddly mature. "I don't know these chicks, but I want to spare them. It's the human thing to do."

"Porsches and pilots," Kathleen said. "I never thought of knowing anybody with all that."

"I don't know where to find that pilot," Zander said. "I want to give my tutor a free ride. She loves flying."

"Are you sure it's not the pilot she likes?" Quinn asked.

"You two and your matchmaking!" Kathleen laughed. "How are Alexis and Jerry doing, by the way?"

"Not bad," Quinn said. "I think they've gotten together outside the Outback."

"We're going to succeed there, you watch, Kathleen," Zander said.

The van was headed back to Port Charles the next morning, but Quinn and Zander were going to take a side trip first.

She had planned it; she said it was no good to come out this far without showing him the place she had gone to college.

They drove the three and a half hours north to get to South Bend.

"Not much changed," she said, driving through the town.

"There is the famous football stadium," he said. "The Fighting Irish."

"Right! Good memory."

She showed him the Grotto, a little cave of candles, a one-seventh sized replica of the French shrine at Lourdes; the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and the Main Building of the University of Notre Dame, with its famous golden dome, Havican Hall at St. Mary's, where the nursing school was, the lakes, and her dorm.

They went inside the dorm, and Quinn knocked on a door on the second floor. There was a girl sitting on a bed, reading a textbook.

"Sorry, can I bother you? I used to live in this room."

"Sure, come on in. Has it changed?"

Quinn laughed. "Only the bedspreads and the posters on the walls."

"How long ago?"

"Two years," Quinn said, looking off wistfully. "Some ways, it seems longer."

"So you're an alum?"

"Yep. I see you're in nursing school, too."

"Oh," the girl said, "you recognize the anatomy textbook."

Quinn smiled. She walked over to the window and looked out for a minute. "Thanks," she said to the girl.

"That room is small," Zander commented. "How could you stand it?"

"I don't know! You saw the other bed, right? She has, and I had, a roommate, too!"

"Which you weren't used to at all, having no sisters."

"Right. I was spoiled that way. But it was interesting, too. And there is so much to do on a campus that you don't really stay in your room much. I remember being excited to meet my first roommate. I was hoping she'd be a similar size so we could swap clothes!"

"How did you do it?" he asked. "So far from Port Charles. Didn't you miss them?"

"I suppose I did. Yes. It was hard, the very first part. I kept telling myself that Fall Break would get there, and I already had tickets to fly home for it. Then you get involved in everything. You have your classes, and your roommate to get to know at first, then you meet other people in your classes. I called home a lot. I missed Scott, so I was always writing letters and was always on the phone. Then after that first time, when you go home for Fall Break, you know it's only a month to Thanksgiving, and then less than a month to Christmas. By Spring semester, you know people at school, too, so you have a life here too and don't feel too bad about home. My mind was all on classes, and Sean, and girl friends and their problems."

"If I had a family like yours I don't think I could have done it."

"The way you left home was way harder. And you were only sixteen."

"Yeah, but you have such a nice family."

"I think that only made it easier. I could call whenever I wanted. I got all kinds of emails. I really missed Brad and Tim, believe it or not, don't tell them. The silly stuff they would do and say. I saved my letters; I'll show them to you if I can find them someday. The ones from Brad still crack me up."

They were sitting in the Basilica for awhile. Zander was wide-eyed. "It's so intricate, like the Russian churches," he said.

"I wonder how it affects you, not having a religion," she said. "I don't claim to be all that religious. But I would think everyone needs some spirituality."

"Teach me to be a Catholic," he said.

"I'm not sure if that's right for you. Maybe you need to learn to be Russian Orthodox. Or maybe you need to start simple, like some Native American ceremony."

He put his arm around her in the pew.

"Let's try watching the sunset," she suggested.

"Does it make you nostalgic for college?" Zander asked her, as they walked along the lake. The sun set prettily there.

"Yes, a little. A happy kind of nostalgic. I had all those dreams in those days. Some were silly and that's OK now. Some are even come true."

"Come true?"

"I'm a nurse! A real, graduated, board-certified, R.N."

"Yeah. I didn't imagine that so much before. Once you weren't. And had to study, like that girl in your old dorm room. And not be sure you would ever be a nurse."

"You could have a dream like that."

"I'm not sure."

"That's OK. If you ever do, well, you can do the same."

"I think I don't dare think of it. I wonder if I passed that GED."

"I know you did."

"Do you score the tests?"

"Yeah, it's my side job."

He laughed, and hugged her for a second.

"What other dreams?"

"Oh, that I'd have a guy I really liked."

"You had Shyster Sean."

"Deep down I knew I'd meet a guy I _really_ liked," she grinned, mischievously.

"Did you ever walk along here at sunset with Shyster Sean?"

"Of course. It's romantic. It seemed romantic years ago with Shyster Sean. So how much more so it must be now."

"I ought to take you to the barn where I used to meet Emily."

"Only you could make a barn romantic."

"Thanks, Quinn."

She laughed. "My craziest dream, which is still fun to dream, though it likely can never be true, is that I would be like Lyn St. James, back then, the only woman driving in the Indy 500. Like Sarah Fisher this time. In this dream, I only have to drive. I don't have to win."

"In my dream, you win," Zander said. "And I get to pour the milk over your head."

They were in a nice hotel, quaint, and not too commercial. Quinn didn't sleep all that well, thinking of all the memories she had from looking around the campus. She remembered sitting in the Basilica with Sean in a similar way. It had been romantic. At least, she thought she remembered it that way.

She looked at the sleeping Zander. She had missed home the first weeks of her freshman year, she realized. Maybe more than she had wanted to think of at the time.

But Zander had left home suddenly one day. She knew why, but she still didn't quite understand. She wasn't sure she could have done such a thing even in the same situation. Totally alone, and sixteen. She tried to push back her imagining of what that first night must have been like.

She felt a lump in her throat. It was dark, and he was asleep, so she let a few small tears escape. She hugged him as if she could somehow comfort the lonely sixteen year old.

He had been really angry, she realized. Maybe that had helped carry him through it.

She kissed his shoulder, then held him again. Soon she was asleep, too.

Backstage at the Port Charles Dinner Theater, the performers for the Nurse's Ball ran around, got themselves into tizzies, and tried to get ready.

Bobbie Spencer ran in, flustered. It had take until the very last minute to get the costumes Carly had designed and sewn at Ferncliff. She went in and looked at Joanna and Quinn getting dressed from time to time.

"Oh, you look so cute!" she said. "Carly would love to see this!"

"Do you have a camera?" Quinn asked.

"I didn't think of it!" Bobbie said.

"I'm sure somebody does!"

Fortunately, Lucky was able to oblige. When Quinn and Joanna were out of the dressing room, they found Tim and Lucky was able to take several pictures of them. Lisa watched, admiring them.

Lucky and Lisa had been able to rehearse two songs enough to feel all right about doing them on stage. He thought her voice was better than his, and wanted her to sing solo, but she didn't like that. He tried creating a harmony. Eventually, they were both happy with what they had.

Quinn noticed Emily in the dressing room. She made a wry face. Joanna saw, and smiled.

"Well, are you ready?" she asked Quinn.

"Ready as I will ever be," Quinn answered.

Zander had felt good about the test, but he was still nervous opening the results. He took a deep breath and opened the envelope. He sighed. He had passed.

Now he could move on. He was elated and didn't know who to tell first.

He decided Amanda Friel deserved his first call.

"I knew it," his tutor said. "Take some time to celebrate. Then we can go to PCU and start working on them. But not yet. Take some time."

"OK," he said. "I'm going to treat you to a flight. You love flying in that charter plane. Somewhere fun."

"Oh, you don't have to do that, Zander," Amanda said. "But we can go to Boston or New York, I have a lot of things to show you in those cities."

Then he called Kathleen, who warmly congratulated him and promised to tell the rest of the Connors, then he called Quinn, then he called Alexis, then Joe Quinn and then Oksana, and then Sergei. He worried a little about the order in which he called his parents, but figured Oksana had done the more of the work.

He was so happy; he hardly knew what to do with himself. 

He went off to the Nurse's Ball. He and Quinn were sitting at a table with Alexis, Jerry Jax, Jasper Jax and V. Ardanowski, Stefan Cassidine and Oksana. Alexis had arranged this for everyone.

Quinn wasn't there yet; she wouldn't be there until after they had performed their number.

Oksana was sitting next to him on the other side. She talked to Stefan in Russian. Every once in awhile, Zander said something in this conversation. Stefan wasn't doing too badly. He didn't know many words, though.

Zander looked across the room, seeing many people, and thought he was better off if he didn't. He saw where the Quartermaines sat and decided never to even look over in their direction.

AJ wasn't with the family; Zander saw him at a table with a bunch of nurses. He looked like he was having a good time, flirting with all of them.

Dr. Alan Quartermaine sang first. Zander barely listened to him.

Lucky Spencer and Lisa were next. Zander thought they weren't half bad.

Then to Zander's displeasure, Ned and Emily came out. They did a little duet. Then Ned played while Emily sang. Good for her, thought Zander. It was unexpected. Then he wondered why. It was the right time of year for college students to have arrived home.

"Her voice is very sweet," Oksana said.

"No doubt she could have been a big star," Zander muttered. "I think Lisa's better. But that's all personal opinion."

Dr. Tony Jones was next.

Finally, Peter, Paula and Mary came up. Zander smiled. Joanna's shoulder length hair curled into a big poofy hair style. She wore a short black dress with short sleeves. Quinn's long hair was pulled back straight from her face and fixed into a big bun at the back of her head. She too wore a short black dress. Hers was sleeveless. Both of them wore a lot of eyeliner and a lot of blue eye shadow.

Tim had let his hair get down to his shoulders. Then they'd cut it in the style of the Beatles, when they first showed up in the U.S. He wore a suit and a thin tie. 

They sang "500 Miles," "Day is Done," "The Unicorn Song," "If I Had a Hammer. and "Blowin' in the Wind." They did a harmony of three on each one, but Zander could hear Quinn. She had a nice, low voice that was sweeter and prettier than that of anyone else who had been on that stage.

Zander paid little attention to the rest of the show. 

After the show, there was the dinner, and then the dancing. 

Quinn came back, after she had changed. Her hair was up the same though. She wore a red gown and was stunning.

"You were terrific," everyone said.

Quinn beamed.

Lucky and Lisa were sitting at a table with Nicholas and Gia, Cheryl and Scott, and Detective Taggart and Dara Jenson.

Lucky introduced everyone to Lisa.

The wedding of Nicholas and Gia was the general subject of conversation.

"All of the dresses are in," Gia said. "Yours too, Cheryl."

"It's going to be really nice," Dara said.

"Thank you," Gia said. "And I'm glad you'll be there. Marcus is going to look really nice in the tux. You see how he looks tonight."

Lucky explained to Lisa how everyone else at the table was involved in the wedding.

"It looks like I'm the only one who has nothing to do with it," she smiled. "Maybe I can do the flowers."

Lucky said, "you know, I'd really like it if you'd go to the wedding with me."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "You don't have to ask me to avoid my feeling left out at this table. I was kidding about the flowers." She smiled.

He thought she had a beautiful smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he answered. "I can't think of better company here or there."

"Then I would be happy to go," she answered.

Later, when the dancing started, Lucky asked Lisa to dance. Out on the dance floor with her, he was happy. He hadn't felt this way in a long time.

Later, he told Nicholas he was bringing Lisa as his date to the wedding.

"But you're bringing Emily," Nicholas said.

Lucky had forgotten about that. "I can't now."

"We really need someone to keep an eye on her," Nicholas said. "Gia is worried she'll do something. Like she did for the engagement party."

"Her whole family will be there," Lucky argued.

"I hope they do a better job than last time," Nicholas said.

"Oh for crying out loud," Lucky said. "Just because Emily had some trouble that one night, doesn't mean she has trouble every single night."

Nicholas smiled. "OK, I was getting caught up in Gia's stress. She thinks Emily gets into trouble whenever she can."

"Yeah, like her old boyfriend Zander," Lucky answered. "No, Emily is not that bad."

Lucky found Emily and introduced her to Lisa.

Later, Lisa was talking to Gia and V., and Lucky was hanging around. Emily came up to him. "Is this your new girl?" Emily asked.

"I don't know. Maybe. I'm going to take her to the wedding," he said.

"I thought you were taking me to the wedding!"

"I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding a date."

"Well, as I have not been living around here, it may not be so easy as that. I can't think of anyone off hand."

"I guess you didn't make up with Vinnie, or meet another guy down at school yet?"

"I didn't think of that. I could ask someone to come up for it. Worth a try, anyway."

"I'm sure one will come."

"It's an eight hour drive."

"What's that, to do a favor for a beautiful woman?"

"Gee thanks, Lucky. Well, see you later."

Zander had gone to get drinks for Quinn and Alexis. He was waiting for the bartender, when Emily appeared beside him.

"I need a date to Nicholas' wedding," she said. "Wanna go?" she added, mockingly.

"I'm not going on any date with anybody other than Quinn," he answered. "Which you well know."

"I wonder if she realizes this exclusivity exists," Emily replied. "If she did, she might run for her life. I can't help but hear the other nurses and doctors talk. She doesn't want to be tied down."

"Thanks for the advice," he said, sarcastically.

"I bet she never says she loves you."

"Who cares what people say?" he retorted. "It's what they do that counts. You can say that as many times as you want, but if what you do doesn't match, it's nothing but words."

"If they don't say it," Emily rolled her eyes, "then it isn't so."

"Better than saying it and not meaning it," he retorted.

"If you mean me, that wasn't true. How can you say that? I explained to you what happened. It's you who is unforgiving."

"No, that would be you. Any third party can tell you anything about a guy and you believe it and it's over. Boom. You can blab you love them all you want, it only lasts until somebody else destroys it."

"You shouldn't let someone else destroy it! _You_ shouldn't have!"

"_You_ did that – never mind. Forget it. You're right. It's all my fault. But it's also all done. And quit trying to tell me things about Quinn. You and your gossip can't know Quinn as well as I do, so forget about it. I won't let it bother me the way you intend."

"I don't intend anything to bother you," she said. "Only to warn you that you are obviously way too far in with someone who does not want to be all that seriously involved with you, so you are going to get dumped again if you're not careful."

"Shut up."

"Wow, you're so polite. Oh, here's your mother. Another fact you kept from me."

Oksana put her arm around Zander's shoulders. "You need help with these drinks?" she asked. "Hello," she said, to Emily.

"Hello," Emily said, her tone suddenly courteous.

The bartender brought the drinks. Zander handed one to Oksana to carry and looked at her as if he expected her to come to Emily's defense.

But she took the drink and walked off with him.

"Why were you telling that girl to shut up?" Oksana asked.

"You weren't there for the rest of that conversation, Mom."

"I know. I did not say you were wrong."

"Oh no? Well, if you must know, she was annoying me. She intended to, and she knew she was doing it. No reason to feel sorry for her. My telling her to shut up was mild compared to what some people might do."

"Very well," Oksana answered.

But Zander was still in the middle of the fight, and did not realize it was over. "She still is trying to get me to take the blame that she chose to break up with me over what her family told her. So she is trying to sabotage my confidence in Quinn. Which is all none of her business, and she has a lot of nerve, and - "

"She is surely a witch," Oksana interrupted him to agree.

He stopped suddenly, realizing he was not in the argument anymore.

"Well thanks, Mom," Zander said. "Nice to know you are on my side for once."

Oksana let it go, rather than reciting why she thought she had always been on his side. She knew he was upset and was saying anything he could think of. She patted his shoulder. "Of course," she said. 

Quinn noticed he looked upset when they went out to dance.

"Little Emily," he explained. "I'll get over it."

"Do I even want to know what she said?"

"Same old thing," he said. "You're not serious about me. How does she know you so well, anyway? Or claim to, or why does she think I would believe you have ever told her anything? She must think I'm stupid that her opinion of your feelings could carry any weight."

"I never talk to her. You do realize that?"

"Yes," he said. "Reassure me some."

She smiled. "OK," she said. "I am so crazy about you! If Little Emily ever tries to give me any lip, I will tell her that. I'll tell any part of the hospital gossip mill any time. So you'll know she is making it all up if she keeps it up with you."

"Thank you," he said, leaning down and kissing her.

"I'm wild about you," she whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

Retired Nurse Audrey Hardy was giving two talks on her tour of Africa; all of the nurses were going to get to go. Quinn and Joanna were on the day shift, and so would be able to hear Nurse Hardy at 4 p.m. She was giving another talk at 1 a.m. and another at 9 a.m. – she knew nurses' schedules.

So the day shift gathered in the big classroom-like hall at the end of the Main floor of the hospital.

Nurse Hardy showed slides and talked. First, she described her 38-hour trip with a flight to Washington, Frankfurt, Johannesburg and finally to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. She had a slide of a map of southern Africa, and pointed Malawi out. She said it was the size of Portugal, had over 10 million people, and that almost one million of them were infected with HIV. The HIV/AIDS epidemic brought an increase in tuberculosis, malnutrition, and other acute diseases.

She explained that more than 60 percent of the nursing positions there are vacant, because trained nurses have the opportunity to immigrate to the UK and other countries. Those that stayed in Malawi worked long hours and under difficult conditions; there was also an acute shortage of medical supplies and equipment. Many facilities did not have necessities like aspirin, band aids, or rubber gloves after the first week of the month.

Not only all of this, but then the country had been struck with a famine, the worst one in 50 years.

Nurse Hardy had worked at Bottom Hospital in the capital, Lilongwe. It was crowded, with 50 women in the postnatal care wards. Relatives would come into the hospital to provide food and care. They could cook right there in the hospital. She showed a slide of a picture of some women in colorful clothes, cooking over a fireplace.

Then she showed some pictures of the hospital building from the outside. It was a ramshackle set of single-story buildings. There were several programs going on: family planning, AIDS prevention, and experimental research that the patients could sign up for. She would describe one of them in detail: the program for prevention of mother to child AIDS-transmission, the PMTCT program

She had a photo of the line of patients – early every morning they waited in a line outside the clinic. They got there however they could, mostly on foot, and these often bare feet. "Almost every one very one, as you can see, carries a child in her arms, or has a baby on her back in a sling trussed around her bosom," Nurse Hardy pointed out. "I never saw two women dressed alike; they wore every color in the rainbow, usually in big, bold patterns. The piece around the waist is called the chitenje."

She showed slides of the clinic, which was only six small rooms, a file room and a lab. One wry photo was of a bunch of papers in disarray, the current record keeping system, she called it. The nurses laughed politely.

The patients would then come in, and the nurses would interview them. She showed some pictures of herself and other nurses, and interpreters, talking to the patients. They had to talk indirectly, she explained, not mentioning HIV by name. The nurses would give information about HIV, HIV testing and transmission, and then do one-on-one counseling, then they draw the patient's blood. "About 80 of the women who hear the small group talk agree to be tested," she said. "If they are positive, we describe the anti-HIV pill, nevirapine, that they can take when they go into labor, and stress how important it is for them to come to the hospital for the delivery, so that their baby can get medicine too. Then in the third trimester we give the mothers a 200 milligram tablet of nevirapine to take at home when labor starts. When the mothers come to the hospital, we'll check their status and give the babies a single dose of nevirapine syrup shortly after delivery – this treatment decreases transmission by 50 percent."

The patients had some interesting impressions. "I recall asking this patient why she chose to give birth at home," she said, showing a slide of the patient sitting in the clinic, "and the patient responded, 'I am not comfortable answering that question.' I asked another, this one, why she stopped breast-feeding, and she answered, 'Because I was pregnant again and the milk is no longer for this child, it is for the child I am expecting.' Another came back the day after the blood test, saying, 'I spoke with my husband and he does not want me to have this test. He does not want to die and he wants me to get my blood back.'

"Some of the mothers enrolled on a research study who were given a few kwacha, the local currency, for travel expenses, thought we were buying their blood to take to the United States," she said. "We finally decided to hire a local cartoonist from one of the newspapers to make a giant cartoon of a person, illustrating how much blood is in the body, and how much we were taking."

They also had tracing nurses, whose job it was to go and find the women who tested positive but didn't return. "We are close to having 100 percent of the women being found," she said, "which was a thing to be proud of, because it was rare in the region."

"Interesting that with that shortage, the relatives help with some of the work," Joanna said to Quinn, as they walked out. "It's a good thing we don't have to do that."

"I know," Quinn said. "Imagine. Trying to get Grandfather Quartermaine to cook dinner for Little Emily."

"Or any of those stressed-out family members that pepper you with questions you can't answer," Joanna added.

They stopped at Luke's for awhile.

"It seemed really interesting," Quinn said. "Very challenging, do you think? And Nurse Hardy seemed so dedicated to the place."

"Very different," Joanna said. "It might be good training, too, for a little while, anyway. What did she say she was there for, two years?"

"Yes. A long time. I think it was brave of her to go there and do that for that length of time."

"Now I have to tell you about something that you won't believe," Joanna said.

"OK. Tell me something I won't believe."

"You know that wedding, Nicholas Cassidine and that model?"

"Yeah. The ones that came to see Miss Emily when she was in the ICU, and the guy ticked off old grandfather."

"The very ones. Their wedding. Well, AJ asked me to go to it."

"As his date?"

"No, as the nurse on call for Little Emily. Yes, as his date, silly! I knew you wouldn't believe it."

"I'm very impressed. Where do you think that came from?"

"I saw him a couple of times outside the hospital."

"Oh, you had the same lawyer, I remember. Where else?"

"Then I saw him at the park one day when I was there with the kids. He was there with Michael."

"Hmmm. So have you gone all the way with this Glen yet?"

Joanna laughed and put her hand over her mouth, having just taken a drink of her rum and coke. "Does that have a bearing on this?"

"I guess. I mean, how is it going with this Glen, do you want to go out with another guy? If you do want to go out with another guy, then do you want to go out with AJ?"

"AJ is a potential problem. Were it to work out badly, he'd still be around."

"But do you want to go?"

"Yes."

"Will Glen be peeved?"

"Peeved would not be the word. He might be surprised. I've been seeing him for months now. And I haven't gone all the way with him, as you so elegantly put it."

"Kind of a long time. I submit that you are not really so attracted to Glen. Now you're even willing to go out with another guy. Another guy who is a potential pain in the neck."

Joanna laughed. "I suppose I'd really better go. It promises to be a really upscale wedding."

"Is it this wedding you want to see, or AJ?"

"A little of both, I guess."

"You like him!"

"I guess."

"Such enthusiasm!"

"I'm nervous. Being one of the Mansons and all. I keep thinking of the potentials if it goes badly. And why wouldn't it?"

"They won't fire you over it. I made it through Emily as a patient without getting fired. I even yelled at a couple of the Mansons!"

"It's a good thing there is a shortage of nurses here, too. I guess I could survive. They aren't as protective of AJ as they would be of her."

"And if it goes really bad, there's always Malawi."

Joanna laughed, and threw her balled up straw paper at Quinn.

Quinn was at Zander's later, telling him about it while the Pocono 500 played on the TV.

"It was really interesting. Patient's families there cooking dinner. Trying to stem the tide of the epidemic. I think I'll go over there. Help my fellow man. Or woman, I guess it would be."

"But I don't – "

"Don't?"

"I mean - "

"What? Tell me."

"I don't want to pressure you."

"Oh, forget about all that."

"I don't want you to go."

"I don't mean now, silly!"

"You mean, someday?"

"Maybe. Someday, maybe. Maybe someday. It was idle talk. I was fantasizing for a second. Now, sober reflection takes over. Those tours are for two years, and I'd never want to go unless I could find a program for it that was much shorter."

"Good, because I, well, never mind. Please stay here."

"I will! There are people I don't want to be separated from!"

"Well, you said you wanted to go."

"Nurse Hardy went as a widow. Her grown children are all somewhere else, and that's different. Maybe I could consider it in those kinds of circumstances."

"OK. OK. I'm glad this plan is really put off, then."

"Really," she said, hugging him, "I'm sorry. I was running my mouth, Zander. It was going faster than my brain. I have not the least desire to go to Africa. Not unless a certain man wants to go with me."

"You mean it?"

"I mean it." She kissed his cheek. "You're so silly," she said.

The cars on the TV went on down the Long Pond Straightaway. Zander looked at them like he was mesmerized by them. Quinn knew Paul had been right, for sure, now.

Had her little comment really sounded like the words of someone seriously about to pack her bags for a long assignment in Africa? She knew she hadn't meant it all that seriously.

"Don't see that Zander can know what you mean seriously and what you don't." Joe commented, when she told him about it the next day, during a break at the hospital. "The gift of gab can be a curse, too."

"Do you think you would have known I was kidding?"

"How did you put it?"

"I think it was, that I'm going to go over there too and help my fellow man by helping those women."

"Maybe you didn't catch the right tone."

"Yeah. I should have maybe used a silly accent. I must have sounded straight and serious."

"Sounds as if you straightened it out."

"It really struck me, after all I've said and done, that he could think for a minute I would suddenly abandon him and go to Africa."

"You might expect he'd wait. You went to Notre Dame while Scott went somewhere else, and he knows that."

"And we were not long ago walking around the campus. Maybe. Zander seemed to think he wouldn't go as far as Notre Dame, if he had a family like mine. We were talking about that, walking around the campus."

"You said you liked him because he was different. But then just remember it. He's different."

"Yeah," Quinn smiled. "Quite different."

Quinn called Zander later. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I was playing tennis."

"At your – Oksana's house?"

"At the country club."

"Oh, that's good!"

"I need better opponents, you remember."

"Was it fun?"

"Yes, it was."

"I'm glad. Who was this good opponent?"

"Jackson Delaney. The pilot of the charter plane. I ran into him when I came to look into the tournaments."

"Really, is he good?"

"Pretty good. Do you want to come out here for dinner?"

"The country club? I don't belong to it."

"You can come in with me."

The Port Charles Country Club was at the edge of the lake. The restaurant was pretty, decorated mostly in white, and fancy.

"You will not believe this," Zander told her, after they had been seated. "But Oksana has a date."

Quinn smiled. "This is my week for hearing about unbelievable dates. I'll tell you mine after you tell me yours. Who is the lucky man?"

"Stefan, Alexis' brother."

"What do you think of that?"

"I'm kind of blown away. She's never had a date that I know of or can remember. That's what blows me away. Not the actual date, but that she hasn't had any."

"Where to, any place in particular?"

"The wedding. Gia, Taggart's sister, who works at Deception. And the groom is his nephew. Lucky's half brother."

"Oh, that's where my unbelievable date is for, too."

"Your date? You're going to that wedding?"

"No, no. I mean another person. That has an unbelievable date for it. Joanna. I'll tell you who asked Joanna. But back to Oksana. She has to have dated someone in all those years."

"Maybe she wanted to keep it a secret."

"Ask Pete about, you know, those years you were away from home."

"That's an idea."

"Joanna has kids, and I don't think she wants them to have to deal with a guy unless there's a minimal something to it. Maybe Oksana felt the same way, but now you're old enough to know she's going out. Now, do you want to know who asked Joanna?"

"Yes."

"AJ."

"AJ!"

"Yeah," Quinn smiled broadly. "Do you advise her against it?"

"Definitely," he grinned.

"What about the couple we've been working on? Alexis and Jerry. She must be going. She's the groom's aunt."

Zander laughed. "Here we are, leaving it all to Alexis! Maybe we have to do something. I wonder if she asked him to go."

"Maybe you can set it up as her assistant."

"I might have to," he said. "Oh, and Emily needs a date."

"How do you know?"

"She told me when she assaulted my ears at the Nurse's Ball, that she needed one. She asked me if I wanted to go in a sarcastic way, not to ask me to go really but to annoy me. I said I only went on dates with you. She went from there to say you would drop me if you knew I thought like that."

"I'm appalled. She doesn't know me one bit."

"I know, Quinn, she was trying to burst my bubble."

"Or she was experimenting. Just to see your reaction. If you react too much, she figures you're insecure. She knows she has a chance."

"I did react too much. Not because she has a chance. Because she ticks me off."

"Hold the Irish temper, boy!"

"I'll try," he answered. He took her hand.

"I haven't gone out with anyone else," she said, shyly, almost. "I don't think I would want to, either."

He looked at her for awhile. She looked back, and held his hand. They felt like they were in a spell, until a waiter came up.

At the rehearsal, the wedding planner asked who would be matched up with who. Cheryl and Lucky would go together, of course, but as to the rest: what order would they go in, and who would go with who?

Gia wanted V. to go with Marcus. Somehow, Nicholas got the wedding planner to put V. with Jax. Gia panicked. She suggested in as light as voice as she could that Elizabeth go with Marcus.

The last thing she wanted for her wedding album was for her brother to be stuck in a lot of photos with Emily.

Fortunately, Nicholas did not get himself involved, and more fortunately, Nicholas obviously didn't consider either Elizabeth or Emily to be more important than the other. Or he didn't understand the importance of Marcus. Either way, Gia was happy with it, and she sighed nearly aloud in relief. It was determined that Emily would go first with Stefan Cassidine, V., with Jax, would be next, then Elizabeth, with Marcus.

Gia's father had come into town the previous evening. His second wife and his other daughter and son were there. Gia had not asked her half sister to be in the wedding, pleading adults only. She tried to steer her father clear of Marcus, whom he had not gotten along with all that well as a stepfather.

During the dinner, V. told Dara, "I have a case you may want to file. I'll tell you about it at work tomorrow."

"I'll be there," Dara said. "Don't you think the bride looks stressed out?"

"Yes," V. said. "I suppose that's par for the course."

"I don't know," Dara said. "I hope you're right. I'd hate to be that nervous on my wedding day. If I ever have one."

"Me too," V. said. "I suppose there are always family problems and people you don't want running into each other."

"Yes," Dara said. "Her father is new to the particular scene, and she doesn't know how he will react. And her parents are divorced. That must create tension all by itself."

"Yes, one would hope they could be friends again by the time weddings roll around for their children. But some of that kind of stuff never dies."

After dinner, Zander showed Quinn around the country club. They took a walk in the garden there.

"Hey Zander," Quinn said, "since we're into matchmaking, and it looks like Emily is free, how about making a match for her?"

Zander considered. "There's Lucky."

"No," Quinn said. "They must be friends. They would have gotten it together by now if they had that kind of attraction for each other."

"I think you may be right. She knew him while he was with Elizabeth and probably thinks of him in a brotherly way because of that. And when she was with me he lectured her in a brotherly way to drop me."

"I'll keep an eye out," Quinn said. "There's a doctor or two."

"Make sure they don't think you're after them for yourself," he grinned. He pulled her close and kissed her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

The wedding was beautiful. The bride walked down the aisle, in her own designer gown, head high, with perfect posture, but dropping all conscious modeling when she first set eyes on the groom. Then her face broke out into a beautiful smile.

Everyone went from the church to a reception at the Cassidine Mansion, which sat on its own island out in the lake. Getting there was a lot of fun. The Cassidines had hired two medium sized boats for the occasion, to ferry the guests back and forth.

There was a live band, naturally. The large living room and dining room had doors thrown open to try to make one big hall. The band and the dancers were in the living room area. After all the obligatory dances of bride and groom and so on, the guests started going out onto the dance floor. 

"Hi," Alexis said to Jerry, who she observed watching the dancers from the edge of the dance floor. "Are you here alone?"

"I sure am."

"Want to dance?"

"Sure!"

"You should know something," Alexis said, falling into step with him.

"What is that?"

"You've been marked out for me by my friend Zander. He and his girlfriend, they are in a conspiracy on this."

"What an honor that is! They think me good enough for such an attractive and intelligent woman?"

Alexis laughed. "I'm glad you take it in a positive light. But you see, now you know why you have been invited so often to the motor speedway. And why you are only invited there on days when I am also."

"And I thought Zander liked me for myself!"

"He may. But he has this other agenda. He thinks I don't realize it, of course."

"I must say I think it is rather kind of two such young adults, who appear to me to be quite keen on each other, to take the time from that youthful paradise of romance to consider the woefully dull love lives of us older people – Oh, I'm so sorry!" Jerry had bumped into a tall young man.

Alexis recognized the tall young man's dancing partner.

"Hello, Emily," she said. "You look really nice. Are you back from college for the summer, or just here for the wedding?"

"I'm back. How are you?"

"Fine. Is this your date?"

"Yes, this is Sean Monroe from Lexington, Kentucky. He works at a law firm I work at down there. Sean, this is Alexis Davis, a lawyer I worked for while I was in high school."

"Nice to meet you," Sean said. "I'm a lawyer too; I want to take the New York State Bar."

"It's a tough one," Alexis said.

"I know it," Sean said.

"This is Jerry Jax," Alexis said. "Jerry, Emily Quartermaine, who, as she said, worked in my office a couple of years ago, and Sean Monroe."

"Are you related to Jax?" Emily asked Jerry.

"He's my brother."

"Oh. He owns some shares in my grandfather's company, I think."

"He gets around."

After the dance, Jerry said, "Can I get you a drink? And of course, you can report this drink to Zander and the young lady."

"Quinn. Sure, give me something to report."

They took their drinks and went out into a shaded, patio area.

In a moment, Jaspar Jax was beside Alexis. He greeted Alexis and Jerry.

They exchanged a few pleasantries about the wedding. Then Jax asked: "Alexis, what do you know about this Sergei K, that Russian?"

"Business at a wedding?" Jerry said. "Little brother, you are slipping. Hold that stuff for later."

"Why, the man's an interesting topic of conversation," Jax said. "And quite personal, since the young friend you took such interest in is his son."

"Are you worried about some of his recent moves, Jax?" Alexis asked him.

"Not worried. Simply curious. Keeping my ear to the ground. I mean, he's got a personal connection to Port Charles, not a business one, so I assume his activities are purely side ventures."

"Might be a good assumption," Alexis said. "You're a smart guy."

"Good job, Alexis!" Jerry said, "I admire your evasiveness."

"I'm a lawyer," Alexis grinned. "I try."

"You represented Zander Smith," Jax said. "He even lived with you. The source of all sorts of trouble, somehow. Do you think he gets that from his old man?"

"Well, let's see," Alexis said. "Here's how you can think of it. Think of Zander's father as Zander to the 25th power."

Jerry smiled. "Little brother, your work is cut out for you! But you are always up to it! That I know."

"Oh, be quiet, Jerry," Jax said, smiling, however. "I had to be that way, or get railroaded constantly by my older brother."

"I got that from two brothers," Alexis said. "But there's Oksana, Jax. She was married to Sergei K. for many years. Maybe she is the one to pump for information."

"Not a bad idea, really. So will you introduce me?"

"I'd be glad to."

Emily saw Lucky, and took Sean over to him. "You've got to meet my old friend Lucky," she said.

Emily said hello to Lucky and Lisa and introduced Sean to both of them.

"This is my date, who came all the way from Kentucky, Lucky," Emily said. "I'm lucky he would do it, but he took pity on me after you left me high and dry. Lucky's my oldest friend," Emily explained to Lisa. "He was going to be my date for this wedding until he met you."

"Don't let her make you feel guilty, Lisa," Lucky said. "She had no trouble getting somebody as a date, which I knew would be the case all along."

"I hate to be a second choice," Sean said, teasingly.

"You're rather a first choice," Emily said. "Lucky and I have been friends since childhood. We were a default for each other. It's like having to go to the homecoming dance with your brother. Now, neither of us had to."

"I'm glad to hear that," Sean said. "Oh, Ms. Davis," he said, seeing Alexis nearby. "May I have a dance?"

"Don't see why not," Alexis answered. "But please, call me Alexis."

They went off onto the dance floor.

Jerry gallantly asked Emily to dance.

"I'd love to later," she said, "I want to tell Lucky something, though. Maybe Lisa would like to?"

Lisa exchanged glances with Lucky, and then accepted.

"Did you have an investigation done, as I suggested?" Lucky asked her, before she could say anything.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Yes," she said. "First, he's a lawyer, so he was investigated by the Kentucky Bar. So he must not have a criminal record. And he doesn't have any kids."

"Did you get a full report?"

"Naturally. But don't tell him."

"I wouldn't do that."

"I wanted to be sure."

"OK. Have you investigated his prior girlfriends, you know, to see if any of them have any warnings?"

Emily didn't answer.

"No ex-wives? Or worse, no current wife?" Lucky persisted.

"None of that."

"He must be a lot older than you if he's already a lawyer."

"He is twenty-six, what of it?"

"You're only nineteen. It is a little older."

"More mature."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. And since he got through high school without knocking anybody up, and hasn't resorted to illegal activities, he's the best on your list. I shouldn't forget Juan. But he was running from his father, wasn't he? So at twenty-six, his parents can have no say. He must be much more mature than Juan or Zander or Vinnie. You're doing much better."

"We've got to learn from past mistakes."

"Looks like you have."

Joanna had met Sean in the boat. AJ and she had gotten on with Emily and Sean.

Sean was staying in the gatehouse, the guest of Ned. Edward had made some noise about keeping him at a distance and keeping an eye on him, remember that he had thought "that deviant" might have seduced Emily on the Quartermaines' very property somewhere a sin supposedly worse than seducing her elsewhere, it seemed.

However, in general, the Quartermaines were impressed with Sean Monroe.

"From Lexington, Kentucky," Joanna said, half to herself. "The same place. I could even swear that was the last name of - . No," she said, "it couldn't be."

"Couldn't be what?" AJ asked, only half hearing her in the midst of some clever remark on Sean's part.

"Nothing," Joanna said. "Speculation. Have you ever been over to this island before?"

"I really appreciate your taking me to that wedding, Sean," Emily said, as they walked from the gatehouse to the main house. They reached the patio. "Thank you."

It was dark. Sean pulled Emily towards him. "How grateful?" he asked teasingly, and then kissed her.

Then she asked, "Are you going to look up Nurse Quinn?"

"No. I'm only up here to study for the bar. And to see you as much as I can get away with."

She smiled, looking a little self-conscious. "Can you work anywhere up here?" she asked.

"Only clerking, until I pass the bar. I'm going to talk to that Baldwin firm. I did that last time I was up here, and they were pretty cool."

"That's great." She looked up, and let him kiss her again.

"I like how tall you are," she said. "Few guys can make me feel little. I kind of like it."

"And you can wear your high heels!" he said. "I often provide that wonderful service to women!"

"Ha, ha," she said. "But I cannot imagine you with that little nurse."

"Yeah, my neck was often stiff from having to bend over for her," he laughed. "Well, good night, tall and willowy one. You sure are beautiful."

Zander was telling Gail about his conversation with Quinn after the talk she had gone to on nursing in Africa, and the conversation with Emily at the Nurse's Ball. Oksana just listened.

"She looked like I was from some other planet," he said. "Even I realized it was dumb really quick, but in that first second it was perfectly plausible. Why shouldn't she go to any end of the earth if she wants? She keeps trying to tell me it's all OK and then realizes she has to repeat it all again."

"Oh, I think you are trying," Gail replied. "You know it. Next time, you can say to yourself, this is like those previous incidents. It's a joke, or there's a mix-up of words, or there's an explanation. As long as you make that your first assumption, you can ask for more information."

"I keep waiting for a shoe to drop. I am afraid to get comfortable. I think I did with Emily and when the shoe dropped, it felt so bad. And I know Quinn is not Emily. It's not fair to Quinn. I know it. I don't understand how it is that I cannot stop reacting."

"Your feelings are as they are. It did feel bad. Naturally you don't want to feel that way again. Your guard is up against being fooled. Now, though, your head is working on your feelings at least some of the time."

"I hope so. I could get her to be fed up with me."

"I think it was related to what Emily said, and your experience with her in the past. It brings those same feelings up closer to consciousness. And for the record, I'm not sure you really ever did feel secure about Emily. But you did well when you told Quinn what Emily said and how you felt afterward."

"I don't know why Quinn should end up having to deal with all that."

"If she wants you, she has to!"

"Don't listen to Emily," Oksana suggested. "Walk away."

"I was at the bar for a purpose and I don't think I want to plan my life around where Emily goes. I don't want to look like I'm running away from her. Making too big a deal of avoiding her."

"Why does she talk to you, anyway?" Oksana said. "You broke up with her."

"She broke up with me. I don't know. I don't see why she wouldn't just want me to be happy. I think maybe she thinks it was a mistake, or not her fault, and wants me to say so, but I can't think of it at the time. Or how would I put that? I don't know. You're right, Gail, I think of how bad it felt when she broke up with me. Maybe I haven't gotten over that yet? Even if I tell her that it was an mistake and I don't blame her for doing it, it still happened."

"It still felt bad and that can't be changed," Gail said.

"That's true," Zander said.

"You have a family now, too," Gail said. "Now, I know this is the hard part. Lean on them, some."

"I don't know when the shoe will drop with them, either," Zander said. "And don't bother with mocking me about that," he said, giving Oksana a resentful glance. "My head knows you will not. My head does not get the first say, though."

"I know," Oksana said. "But I promise I don't drop you into your shoes."

"Huh?"

"I mean I am still here no matter what Quinn does. I cannot say for your father, but he is probably so, too."

"Good, Oksana," Gail said. "Next time you have an incident like you described, with Emily, whether with Emily or with anyone else, Zander, how about, you think, talk to Mom first about it? Try that. Mom is mom whether this or that girl is still in your life or not. Your brother, your father, Rosa, all the rest."

"They're not shrinks, though. Why should they have to listen to this stuff?"

"You would listen to them if they wanted to talk to you about some insecurity of theirs," Gail said. "I feel pretty sure about that. Why doesn't it go both ways, then? Why does it all fall on you? We know why you feel that way – it relates to being overburdened after the divorce. It is hard to overcome a thing like that. I think you can, though."

"I only wish Quinn didn't pay," Zander said. "And she comes from this family where they don't have all that, and there are guys out there from such families too, who aren't such a pain in the neck."

"Oh, I think Quinn cares about you," Gail said. "You try to see that for yourself."


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

Peter and Tim came out of the locker room after the last baseball game of the school year. Jeremy Marshall, the star of the team, was stand out in the gym in front of the bleachers, talking to the girl he dated, Taryn Polk. She had long, dark, straight hair, and an olive complexion, and wore her glasses half the time, giving her an intellectual look.

"Hey guys," Jeremy said, stopping them. "Great game, both of you."

"Thanks," Peter said. "We helped you a little, maybe!"

"My homer wouldn't have meant so much without your single," Jeremy said. "And old Tim here, made that great catch in the seventh. Put out their rally."

"Yeah, great job," Taryn said to Tim and Pete.

"Hi, Taryn!" One of Taryn's best friends and another girl had come up to the group; a cute girl with red hair in a ponytail, and freckles, and a brunette, wearing a volleyball uniform.

"Hi," Taryn said.

"Hello, Branwyn," Jeremy said.

"This is my cousin, Kara," Branwyn, the redhead, explained, introducing the girl in the volleyball uniform.

"Hi," they all said.

"These guys are Tim and Pete," Jeremy told the girls.

"How was the volleyball game?" Taryn asked Kara.

"We lost," Kara smiled, with a little roll of the eyes.

"Was it PCH you were playing?" Peter asked.

"Yep."

"So were we."

"Except they won," Taryn said.

"Hey guys, let's all go to Kelly's!" Jeremy suggested.

"Spanish is horrible," Branwyn told Tim. She had the window seat, right across from Tim. "Is Russian easier?"

"No way on earth," Tim said.

"I'll stick to Spanish," Branwyn declared.

"Hey, Q!" Pete was sitting in the middle, between Tim and Jeremy.

Quinn was getting some coffee to go. She was wearing gold-colored scrubs.

"Who is Q?" Branwyn asked.

"My brother's girlfriend," Peter answered. "She's a nurse. Oh, yeah, and she's Tim's sister."

Quinn stopped by the table. "Hi," she said. She started drinking her coffee.

"Are you on that middle shift, then, Q?" Peter asked her.

"Right, I'm on my way to work."

"Which hospital do you work at?" Jeremy asked.

"PC General."

"Hey, aren't you – you're Quinn, aren't you?" Taryn said.

"That's her normal name," Tim said. "Pete likes her initial."

"Didn't you used to date my uncle?"

"Oh, yeah, you're Patty's daughter. Tara?"

"Taryn."

"You've grown!"

Everyone laughed.

"She's a big girl now," Jeremy said, looking at her with smiling eyes.

"How's uncle Paul?" Quinn asked.

"Good. I guess you see him sometimes at the hospital."

"Now and then."

"Well, it was nice to see you again, anyway."

"Same here. Well, I'll get on to work. Behave yourselves."

"Yes, big sister!" Tim laughed, with the rest of them.

"Your sister's pretty," Branwyn said to Tim.

"She went to Mercy High, too," Tim informed her.

"How old is she?"

"Almost twenty-four."

"Imagine being that old," Branwyn said. "All done with college and everything."

"Yeah, so old!" Peter laughed.

"How old is your brother?" Kara asked.

"Twenty-one. Ancient also."

"You guys should see his car," Tim said.

"Oh, wait, I've heard about that car," Jeremy said. "Your brother didn't want it, or something?"

"Yeah," Pete said. "My parents gave him the car, a Porsche, on his twenty-first birthday, and he refused to take it until one day he decided he wanted Q. to be able to drive it."

"What brought on that change of mind?" Kara asked

"Hard to say. Sander – that's my brother's name – is a mystery a lot of the time."

"Funny name," Taryn said.

"Short for Aleksander, which in English is Alexander, so some people around here say Zander," Peter told her.

"Odd name, you wouldn't think it was that common. The same as that guy who was in the news a couple of years ago for drug dealing at PCH," Taryn said.

"You're on top of things, aren't you?" Peter asked, laughing.

"Yeah, Zander Smith," Taryn said. "That was the guy."

"Must have been a real character," Tim grinned. Then both he and Peter laughed.

"What's so funny?" Branwyn asked.

"He had a southern drawl, not too much, a classy one, which was very pleasant on the ears," Joanna told Quinn. "He was from Lexington, and he was tall and dark haired."

"It can't be," Quinn said.

"Is Sean Monroe a common name in Kentucky? Both names?"

"Gee, I hope so," Quinn said. "What a thought."

"It would be hard to believe that one or both of them hadn't done it on purpose."

"I agree. Maybe not, though. He had been to Port Charles. That would naturally come up in any conversation they had soon after they met. They had that in common first, and could go from there."

"They have another thing in common."

"OK. He has an ex-girlfriend from Port Charles. I don't care if he talks to her about me. I can't stop former boyfriends from doing it any more than they could stop me from talking about them to Zander."

"Right. But it goes yet further, then. I wonder. If you had never met Zander, and she didn't know you at all, that would be it. But she knows you. On top of that, she knows you are with her ex-boyfriend. I wonder if she told Sean all of that."

"Sean could have told her only that he dated someone from Port Charles."

"He could have. If he said you were a nurse, she'd say her parents were both doctors, which nurse is it, and the bottom line is, 99, she knows it's you."

"It will remain to be seen. I think I will treat it like they ran into each other and that's it. It's not my business, or Zander's."

"Are you going to tell Zander about it?"

"Of course."

"Good Luck!"

"Thanks. Well, how was the wedding? And how good a time did you have with AJ?"

"Nice. Very nice."

"He was a gentleman?"

"A perfect gentleman, strangely enough."

"Strangely enough?"

Joanna laughed. "I don't know why I might have been expecting anything different."

"Maybe the other Mansons. How were they?"

"Polite. Actually pretty nice. Sociable. You know. The different context."

"Sounds like you had a good time."

"Pretty good. AJ is nicer away from the rest of the Mansons."

Emily heard a lot of noise and yelling downstairs at the Quartermaine mansion.

"Well, she's not here," she heard her grandfather saying.

"I can let her go back with you on her own recognizance," she heard Detective Taggart saying.

She went into the living room, which was where the voices came from.

"Well, she is here," Detective Taggart said. "I'm sorry Miss Quartermaine, but I have to book you for driving under the influence."

Emily was fuming when she came back from the police station. All that humiliating taking of her fingerprints and taking her picture. Somebody had done it, and she was now sure it was Quinn.

She went to the gate house to talk to Sean about it.

"Have you gone and seen her?" Emily said. "I know you might want to look her up. I know it doesn't mean you're trying to date her."

"No, I haven't looked her up," he said. "I'm not even sure Quinn can know I'm here. This town isn't that small."

"It's really small," Emily said. "She probably knows already."

"Why would she turn you in?"

"She was right there, and she was the one asking questions. The cops wouldn't. AJ told them he was driving."

"Well, was he?" Sean asked. "Wait, don't answer. Talk to your lawyers about it. For sure your parents will line them up."

"Did you go and see her?"

"I did not go see her!" Sean said.

"She told me about you in the hospital, remember? Now it occurs to me she could have put you up to this whole thing to get you back in town."

"If she wanted me back, she could have just said so!"

"Maybe she is sneakier than that."

"No. She's not sneaky."

"You haven't seen her in a couple of years. Maybe she's gotten sneaky."

"I doubt it. Back to the real issue. How could she know whether or not you were driving?"

"She was asking me how it happened, and saying I was really banged up. I asked Detective Taggart how he could possibly charge me when AJ was driving and he said my injuries were the proof I was driving."

"It wouldn't matter who your nurse was."

"Not any nurse would talk to the cops about it."

"If she did, it has nothing to do with me, I assure you."

"Maybe she's nervous about Zander."

"Maybe. From the way you describe him, and what I know of her, he must drive her crazy."

"Why do you say that?"

"She is stable and steady and sensible and he is volatile."

"She was the one dating him just for the fun of it."

"That fits right in with your theory, Emily. She fell hard after all. He doesn't fall for her. She knows it. He still wants to be with you, no doubt. She must realize it by now."

He went over and put an arm around her. "It will be fine," he said. "She won't get the satisfaction of bringing you down."

"There is good news and bad news," Quinn told Zander, in the lobby of the gate house, where they were getting ready to go out to dinner at the Outback.

"What is the bad news?" Zander asked.

"Bad news first, eh? Smart. Well, it's this. Shyster Sean came into town with Little Emily and was her date for the wedding. At least, I think so. There's a slight chance there could be more than one Sean Monroe in Lexington, Kentucky."

Zander was silent, then smiled, then shook his head.

"I wonder if they know."

"I'm hoping they only realized they had something in common. She came from Port Charles, and he had been there. He may not have even told her much about his ex-girlfriend who took him there."

"So what is the good news, nurse?"

"We don't have to do any matchmaking for Little Emily."

Zander laughed. He picked Quinn up and twirled her around. He put her down, and they were both laughing. "We do have much better things to do with our time," he said.

"Indeed we do," she smiled.

Zander and Quinn took Alexis out to dinner at the Outback after a time trial at the speedway.

"He was tall, and had dark hair, and is a lawyer and said he wanted to take the New York State Bar Exam," Alexis said. "He was a passable dancer."

"It's him all right," Quinn said.

"Was he interested in the New York Bar when he came here with you?" Alexis asked.

"There was some talk about it. He went and interviewed with the Baldwin firm. He was thinking we could stay here one summer, but we ended up in Kentucky. I volunteered at a hospital in Louisville."

"Now he sounds like the travel agency for Port Charles, all about how wonderful it is."

"So you danced with him, eh?" Zander asked.

"Yes. And with several others. Even Jerry," Alexis smiled. "We had a drink after that, and talked to Jasper Jax."

Zander and Quinn looked at each other sort of quickly. Alexis smiled.

"What is he up to?" Zander asked.

"Jasper? He was nosing around for information about your Dad. I introduced him to your Mom. He appeared delighted with her."

Quinn's eyes sparkled with amused curiosity. "How did she and Stefan seem to do?"

"OK, actually. They were dancing."

"I would like to have seen that!" Quinn said. "Do you think they like each other?"

"Yes. He likes her very much, I know that."

"Oksana, it's hard to tell," Zander said. "I can't imagine her feelings on such a subject. Sad, I guess."

"She can be kind of stoic," Alexis said. "But that's on the outside. Probably doesn't want you worrying about such things at this point."

Jerry came with drinks and sat down with them, next to Alexis.

"I got to dance with this fine young lady," he grinned. "Did she tell you?"

"She did. Funny you ran into each other there," Zander said.

Now it was Alexis and Jerry's turn to exchange glances.

"Yeah, it was just like we do at the races," Alexis said. Jerry admired her subtlety.

"We could all watch the Sirius 400 on TV," Quinn said. "You are all invited by my place for it."

"Of course I am nervous. I've never asked anyone out before," Tim was saying, in the kitchen at Oksana's house.

"Just take a deep breathe, and do it," Lisa advised. She stood against the counter with a water can in her hand.

"Or get talking about something else and work it in," suggested Diana, who was putting dishes into the dishwasher.

"I like Lisa's way," Peter opined. "and Diana's. Be sure in your mind of the one sentence, so you don't have to look for words. Like: Branwyn, how about going to the movies Friday night?"

"How about going to the movies _with me_ Friday night," Diana amended.

"Yeah, get that part clear," Peter said.

"Thanks, Diana," Tim said. "And Lisa. You, I don't know if you're any help at all," he said to Pete, throwing a rolled up piece of paper towel at him.

Peter dodged it and laughed. He threw it back. It missed Tim but hit Diana.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Peter exclaimed.

Diana threw it back to Peter.

"Dead on!" Peter laughed. "We could use you on our baseball team!"

Quinn's eyes were on the track up ahead, concentrating. She came around the bend, smoothly. It was so easy when you were the only one. It made such a huge difference to do the exact same thing, but with several others on the same oval driving the same way.

It was good for your mind. It was clear of everything else. It knew only the track up ahead.

But when you came off, the world came back again.

Her father, godfather and brothers looked the car over.

"She said she'd go," Tim told Quinn. "Now what do I do?"

Quinn laughed. "You survived asking her out. You can survive going out with her, too."

"Now if you were her, what would you think was a good time?" Tim asked.

"You're a good researcher, if nothing else," Quinn smiled. "I would say it was fun if it was relaxed. No pressure. Keep talking. Tell her about yourself. Ask her about herself."

"There isn't much that is interesting to tell about me," he said.

"Of course there is, you dufus. You play the guitar. You played at the Nurse's Ball. You've been to the Indy 500. Tell her about your sister driving in the races. Your friend who lived in Russia and how you experienced the Russian New Year. Find out if she has brothers and sisters."

"I know she has a cousin."

"OK, ask about the cousin. What's it like to be in a class with your cousin? Does your cousin tell your aunt anything you did, and then your aunt tells your mother and then what happens?"

"Wow, you see all the details, Quinn," Tim marveled. "You're so smart."

She laughed and ruffled his hair. "I knew the day would come when you would appreciate me," she said.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

"I really want to do something special for your birthday," Zander said to Quinn. "Like you did for me."

"Just be there yourself and that makes it special right there," she said.

They were sitting on the couch at Quinn's apartment.

Zander put his arms around her. "Thanks for saying that, Quinn."

"I don't only say it. I mean it will really feel that way."

"I get it."

She snuggled up with him for awhile.

"I know they'll have a party and all that. I can get you a present. But I want to do something really special. Something else."

"I wonder what you will think up!" she kissed him on the cheek.

Alexis Davis wouldn't take Emily's case, saying she had been at the party and could be a witness. A lawyer could not take a case where the lawyer might have been an actual witness to events.

There were many lawyers at Baldwin & Baldwin, however. Sean was already working there as a clerk, and made out the case that one named Bernard Bach was the best.

Bach grilled both AJ and Emily. AJ insisted that he took the wheel when they left the party. He couldn't remember much more. Emily affected not to remember anything.

Bach was not impressed. What kind of a driver remembered so little about the events leading up to an accident? Emily he didn't believe for a second. Why would she remember nothing? He was sure she was driving on that ground alone.

But he was only the lawyer, and his personal opinion didn't matter, except insofar as he decided that there was no way Emily was going to take the stand.

He related all this to Sean Monroe, a new clerk who appeared to have taken a great interest in the case.

"We need to do discovery and get what the cops have," he said to Sean. "Otherwise, the fact they are prosecuting makes no sense. There's some hint it has to do with the injuries, so we have to talk to the nurses and doctors first. That girl is not credible and can't go on the stand. AJ can be forced onto it. He's the second smoking gun."

Sean offered to go to the hospital to talk to the doctors and nurses. Bach agreed. "Her injuries are the crux of the case. Number one, injuries. Number two, AJ."

Sean talked to as many of the nurses and doctors and ambulance attendants as he could find that afternoon. The general medical opinion was that Emily's injuries showed she was driving. They were all nervous about the Quartermaines owning the hospital. Sean tried to put them at ease, saying he was working for Emily's lawyers, not the cops, so that what they told him would help.

He noticed that Emily was ever so slightly unpopular with the staff.

Some found it hard to tell him what they thought of AJ making up a story that he was driving. But Sean got the idea they thought he would lie to keep his sister from getting charged. They all knew he had a history of DUI and figured he could afford to do it, would think of doing it, and was likely to do it. Comments like, "they stick together," and "they will do anything to protect Emily" resonated in his ears and were all "off the record."

Sean knew that Quinn was dating Emily's old boyfriend, but pretended to learn about it from and ICU nurse, Teri Hayes she showed him a picture of Quinn and Zander, which Quinn had tacked to her bulletin board. That didn't signify, as everyone saw the bruises. It was generally thought Quinn had pointed them out first, but then, she had been the nurse on the case. Teri had been too, for another shift, and was sure she would have noticed them sooner or later, anyway.

It also came out that one of the doctors on staff, a psychiatrist named Paul Whitman, had visited Emily in the ICU, with another girl. Sean took this down.

Sean learned Quinn and Joanna were on the midnight shift, so he went back then to see if he could talk to them. He had to explain his way past security guards and get Edward Quartermaine on the phone to convince them to let him in.

The ICU was quiet. He walked, briefcase in hand, silently down the hall.

He saw Quinn in one of the rooms, stethoscope hanging around her next, wearing light green scrubs, with her hair pulled back in a French braid, writing in a chart. He had not seen her in a couple of years. She had not changed, he thought, except to look a little more adult, sophisticated, he thought. Her looks had only improved. He wondered if she had a cooler temper now.

Sean stood in the hallway, unable to think of anything to do but stand there smirking. He was sort of looking forward to seeing the look on her face when she saw him.

But he was rather disappointed. At first, she was a little taken aback, but it didn't last. Maybe Emily was right and she somehow knew he might be around.

"Well, so we meet again, Quinn," he said.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Looking for you. I have to see you in a professional capacity."

"It's the only capacity you will."

"You and a Joanna Shields."

Joanna was in another patient's room. In a few minutes, she came out to the lounge.

"Oh, I remember you from the wedding," he said to Joanna.

"Yes, and since you were Emily's date, I wonder that you can work this DUI case with much objectivity."

"Oh, I'm not objective. I work at Baldwin & Baldwin, and they've been hired to defend her. Your opinion, Ms. Shields, should be very interesting, though. You were there as AJ's date, and he's the one who was driving the car."

"I don't know about that. I wasn't there. I do know what I saw when it comes to Emily's injuries, though."

"Still it follows your opinion is AJ is lying?"

"I don't know. I don't have to decide that. I can tell you what I saw as to her injuries. I don't know who was driving."

"Do you think he is lying?"

"I don't know."

"He never discussed this case with you?"

"No."

"And you noticed Emily's injuries, Quinn?"

"Yes."

He seemed to wait for her to say something else. When she didn't, he asked, "How come?"

"She was my patient, and I was looking at her condition."

"These bruises didn't need treatment, did they?"

"I don't say that. The doctors decide that."

"You think she lies if she says she wasn't driving?"

"Yes."

"Why is that?"

"Because of the bruises."

"Nothing else?"

"No."

Joanna smirked a little, watching this exchange. "Let me ask you some questions," she said to Sean.

Sean looked wary, but did not oppose it.

"How do you just happen to come into this town."

"I got asked on a date, and I remembered how I liked the Baldwin & Baldwin firm and was interested in taking the New York State Bar Exam. And my date's family happened to know a few of the lawyers there."

"So it all worked out so very perfectly," Joanna concluded.

"Yes, very lucky," Sean answered. 

"Do you intend to continue dating this particular girl, or did she just lead you to the law firm in question?" Joanna asked, knowing Quinn might be dying to ask this question but never would.

"Oh, I like Emily," he said. "If that's what you want to know."

"You believe she's telling the truth that she wasn't driving?" Joanna asked.

"I don't think she ever said that," Sean answered. "Personally speaking, it wouldn't make much of a difference to me if she was. Nobody else got hurt."

"The law is offended," Joanna said.

Quinn struggled not to giggle.

"That's true," Sean said. "But then, we don't know, do we? We argue the case, we don't have to decide. For all we know, Quinn here made up a case against Emily out of jealousy."

"That isn't so," Quinn shot back at him.

"That remains to be seen," said Sean.

"I don't need to do anything to her out of jealousy," Quinn said.

"You never know. Emily of course told me about this Zander Smith, and he does not sound like a reliable person at all. Strange choice on your part, Quinn. Strange indeed."

"I couldn't care less about anything than what you think," Quinn retorted. "I think it's she that's jealous, and she's somehow using you in the process."

"Accusing her again, are you?" Sean said. "Couldn't be that she likes me, could it?"

"Doubtful," Quinn replied, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, I'll be off to work some more on my case," Sean said. "See you later." He left satisfied that Quinn's temper was still intact.

"I feel like he was trying to push you," Joanna said, after he had gone. "Is that his lawyer-ness, or the way he usually was?"

"It is the way he usually was, and he's gotten worse," Quinn answered.

Zander was helping Quinn get ready, in her apartment, for Alexis and Jerry to come over.

"So she said she didn't remember," Zander said, in response to Quinn's telling him of her run-in with Sean. "Count on dumb little Emily to say that. How can she not remember? If she wasn't driving, she could say it. So she was, but she doesn't want to take on telling a lie, so she dodges by claiming memory loss. Now she can claim she never lied. Too much."

"AJ is doing her no good," Quinn declared. "He thinks he is playing the hero, but he is not."

"It's the way they always do. They call it 'protecting Emily' and it justifies anything and everything. They even had me doing it at one point."

"Weren't they protecting her from you? You'd think they'd never accept any so-called help from you."

"The family wouldn't. But I could think it, on my own behalf. You know, you can justify anything on that ground. Anything at all."

"I wonder if your parents said that to themselves, you know, Oksana when she took you across town, and Sergei when he took you to Moscow."

"Could have been." He went over and put his arms around her, standing behind her and interfering with her popcorn-making. She giggled. "I'm glad you're the kind that can take care of yourself," he said. 

"I hope so. Thank you. Now I know I don't have to be jealous of little Emily, then."

"How so?"

"Sean is her protector now."

"Do you dislike that?" He let go of her so she could turn to look at him.

"Not so much that, as his giving me a bunch of stuff about it. He hinted I told on her because I'm afraid you still want her, or she still wants you, or something. He got me so mad I don't know exactly what he said. He even had the nerve to hint I was jealous of him! Like I might want _him_ back!"

"Now why would you want that?" Zander smiled.

"Joanna asked him if he really likes Emily. He said he did, of course. I wonder if they are a _real_ couple."

"You think he is really here to try to get to you?"

"I know it sounds egotistical, but - " 

"Not to me! In fact, I bet that part is true at least."

"Thank you Zander, you're flattering. I don't know. Hard to believe he would after all this time. Still, it's also hard to believe he is really that crazy about Emily. He's more arrogant than he used to be. Just not the type to take up with a younger girl and be all sweetness and flowers and candy."

"You think he is manipulative enough to try to use Emily and my past to try to somehow, get us back together so he can free you for his own self?"

"He wasn't like that before. Now he is. It looks that way, anyway. Maybe it's just because he's here, though."

Zander put his arms around Quinn and kissed her. She sighed, and kissed him back. "Let those two play whatever games they want," she said.

"Maybe in the interests of posterity, we should consider keeping them apart. They sound like Oksana and Sergei."

Quinn giggled. "Right down to having the same career. He's probably one of her mentors! Like the coach! Well, there are no foreign countries he can take the kids to!"

"He can still run off to Kentucky with them," Zander said.

"Poor kids. Poor, poor kids." Quinn giggled, and hugged Zander close.

"Part Quartermaine too," he said. "That really sucks for them."


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6**

Joanna again saw AJ in the waiting room at Baldwin & Baldwin.

Sean came out and saw them both. "Sorry we are running late," he said. "Ms. Shields, you've got the earlier appointment."

They left AJ in the waiting room.

Sean took Joanna into the law library, then disappeared for awhile.

Joanna went back and opened the waiting room door. "Come back in and keep me company," she said to AJ. "Now I'm waiting for him in the library back here!"

AJ went back and sat with her at the table in the law library.

"Domestic Relations Cases," AJ read. This was on a series of thick volumes on one of the shelves.

He got up and picked out one of the books and opened it.

"Division of military pensions. And they think being a lawyer is exciting!"

"It isn't the most interesting subject," Joanna agreed, "That's the only issue Charlie and I have left. His and my retirement plans. We were supposed to each take our own, but mine was bigger than his, or something."

She went over and picked out another book.

"This is more interesting," she said. "Custody and Visitation."

"That's my volume," AJ laughed.

"No, here's yours," Joanna said, looked at a lower shelf. "Defense of Drunk Driving Cases."

"True," he said, looking injured. "I paid for all that."

"I was referring to the current case."

"Current case. What current case?"

"Emily, you bonehead," Joanna said. "Haven't you taken on the great big defense all by yourself?"

"So you don't believe me," he said, looking away, as if a little hurt.

"No, I don't."

"Why not?"

"Your sister's injuries."

"Oh, yeah, but how does that really prove anything?"

"For one thing, why weren't you hurt? If the impact was that strong, then, even if you had a seat belt on, you should have gotten hurt."

"I had a stiff neck."

"That's a new one. And how come you didn't make your sister put on her seat belt?"

AJ didn't reply, thinking of what the answer must be. He began to realize it wasn't as easy as he had planned for it to be. Lawyers would ask him questions like this.

"You could have been a lawyer," he said to Joanna. "You come up with the hard questions."

"You're not doing her any real favors, you know, AJ."

"I thought – I just thought, it doesn't matter what my record is, but hers – if she wants to be a lawyer – you know – this kind of thing makes more trouble – and, well, she – she would make a good lawyer, and she is honest."

"Not if she doesn't take the rap."

"It just seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Don't they all?" Joanna asked, putting the book back.

Sean found Dr. Paul Whitman's office, and asked if he could see him. He gave his name.

Paul remembered Sean from the wedding. He shook Sean's hand.

Sean knew from Emily's talking about her friend Elizabeth that Paul had previously been with Quinn.

"Small world," Sean said, "I just saw my old girlfriend, from Notre Dame, who I heard was your girlfriend, too."

"Quinn?" Paul asked. "Why that's odd? You came up here with Emily, right?"

"Right. She is a student at the University of Kentucky."

"OK. I remember Quinn talking about visiting you there. What a small world! On top of that, Emily's old boyfriend is Quinn's boyfriend now."

Sean grinned as he sat down.

"Quinn is the nurse who talked up my client's bruises, on a drunk driving case," Sean said. "Which client is also my friend Emily. One of the nurses says you and a girl visited her while she was in the ICU."

"Elizabeth," Paul answered. "She has known Emily a long time."

"I know, Emily speaks highly of her," Sean said.

"She does?" 

"Sure. Do you remember Emily saying anything about the accident or her injuries when you visited her?"

"Not really," Paul said. "It's sort of a blur in my mind. I remember going to check for her about something. I think Emily wanted to know if Quinn was still seeing Zander, and I went out and saw that Quinn had a picture of she and Zander on her bulletin board. And she still had half a picture, which used to be a picture of Quinn and myself, on her bulletin board. I remembered laughing with Emily and Elizabeth over how Quinn gave me back my half of that picture. But the accident and all that - if we talked about it, I've forgotten it."

"Do you think Elizabeth might remember?"

"She might. She stayed with Emily while I went out, and talked to Emily alone then, I assume."

"Can you get me in touch with Elizabeth?"

"Sure."

"Now this Zander," Sean said.

"What's he got to do with it?" Paul asked.

"Well, I wondered. Quinn dates this guy, and he used to be in love with Emily, heck, we don't know if he still is or not."

Paul waved a hand. "Quinn wouldn't bother to lie about something like that to try to keep Emily away from Zander," he said. "You ought to know Quinn better yourself. She doesn't need to worry about that, if Smith left her, she'd have a new guy in no time. She doesn't want to settle down, which you know. She likes Smith because he is young and carefree."

"Do you think she is more allied to him, that sort of thing? I've seen the equivalent in divorce cases."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, gets back at Emily on Smith's behalf. He's mad at Emily for breaking up with him."

"No, she wouldn't bother with those games. Man, you didn't know her very well, did you? Good thing she didn't marry you."

"She talks about that?" Sean looked offended.

"Well of course, I went out with her a while, and we find out about each other's pasts. Just from talking."

"Well, if you remember anything, here's my card." Sean got up to go.

Paul looked down at the card. "I'll ask Elizabeth to call you," he said.

Alexis and Jerry were sitting on Quinn's couch, watching the races at Michigan International Speedway. Alexis ate popcorn, occasionally offering some to Jerry.

"She must have been charged with DUI then," Alexis was saying.

"You mean you think the cops actually charged Emily with DUI?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah. You're not going to see lawyers, or their clerks, running around asking questions unless there has been a charge."

"I really did start something up," Quinn said.

"Stirring up the pot, eh?" Alexis grinned. "Well, you said what you thought."

"I feel bad, now. I don't know what I expected. AJ to get into trouble somehow for lying. I don't think I had a clear vision of Emily getting charged with it."

"Poor, poor Emily," Zander said. "There is something about her. Everybody else feels responsible. Even Quinn."

"Now it feels disloyal, having been her nurse," Quinn said.

Alexis said, "That's interesting. But a nurse doesn't have that kind of duty of loyalty, probably. Is there some nurse code of ethics? I doubt that it provides you have to keep something like this confidential. Just her medical condition. Maybe we can look it up, and it might get you feeling better about it."

"Thank you, that's a good idea, Alexis," Quinn said.

Kathleen went with Amanda and Zander to Port Charles University. They had gotten an appointment with Tracey Cannon, the head of admissions.

"We have this report done to analyze his education in Russia," Kathleen said, handing the report to Tracey. 

Tracey looked it over. "With that and the GED, you should be able to get in," she said to Zander. "I'll give you the application form, and you can fill that out, and submit it with this and anything else we can think of. But the basics are there. The translation of the transcript shows you've got good grades from there, plus the GED makes you the equivalent of a high school graduate here."

"I wanted to see too about him getting some credits, if possible," Kathleen said. "For example, rather than taking the classes for the foreign language requirement, can you give him some tests to pass to get him credit for that? The regular College Level Examination Program doesn't have the language. But you do have it at PCU."

"I see," Tracey said. "I'll talk to the head of the Russian Department."

"Thank you," Kathleen said. "Then we wanted to get started in the summer session if that's possible."

"Should be, if you apply right away," Tracey said. "Let me look at what you should take then, though. They don't offer everything in the summer. But you could get a couple of classes that should go towards your general college credits and aren't something you think you might be able to test out of."

"I'm still going to help you, Zander" Amanda said, as the three of them walked out. "Make sure you get on a good footing with the first classes, and with the placement tests."

"Thanks," Zander said. "I can use all the help I can get. It was OK studying for a specific test, but I haven't taken an actual class in years. It seems harder, somehow. I don't know how I would do it without both of you."

"There is more time to study for a class," Amanda pointed out, "and more tests, which, with you, I think may be better. There are finals too, but you can do them if you could do the GED. Especially when you just had the class. With the GED you hadn't studied the subjects for years."

"You'll do fine, Zander," Kathleen said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 7**

Quinn and Joe were drinking coffee at Kelly's.

"Sometimes I wonder if I was doing the wrong thing here," Quinn said. "Do you suppose I really did want to get her into trouble somehow?"

"Don't see that you could have done it alone," Joe said. "The authorities didn't have to do anything about it, even after they had heard your story."

"I did check it with Joanna. She agreed."

"You've been cautious about your own prejudices. You think this girl would try to get away with that?"

"I don't know for sure. I think her brother would. Then, that she'd allow her brother to do it for her seems to be insulting her too much."

"She may have, so it's not insulting her too much."

"I don't know, Joe. Why do I have this nagging guilt feeling? Maybe Zander is right – there's something about her that does it. Or maybe it's being her nurse. Seems disloyal."

Joe smiled. "Maybe you don't feel so bad that she's been charged because you helped smoke her out. Maybe you feel it more for feeling like it's something she deserves and so you don't mind seeing her suffer the brunt of it. If that happened to somebody else, you'd still feel bad for them."

"You know, that could be it. I could be even feeling good that she had to deal with the consequences. Because I get the idea from Zander that she never does. I don't feel like I'm jealous of their past."

"This Sean got you thinking about that," Joe said. "He's in the position to be jealous of you, of Zander."

"For that matter, Emily does it, when she suggests that it was some sort of mistake they broke up. Needles at me. I shouldn't let it happen, because Zander reassures me."

"It's natural to the situation," Joe said. "You can't help but be a little jealous of their past. So would Zander be cautious of Sean and Paul. It's even worse for you, because this Emily character got into your life another way."

"Two other ways, with that accursed Shyster Sean!"

"That's right," Joe said. "You know, that is really strange. Really suspicious. Makes me real suspicious of Sean, especially."

"Are you glad I didn't marry him?" Quinn asked, smiling.

"I think I was, but see, that was because you'd be living off in Kentucky, dear, which is a lot more for my benefit than yours! But it's him too. I think. I don't question your judgment dating him and all, and when it came to the point, you made a good decision. Now it just looks like confirmation."

"Yeah," Quinn said. "I'm more sure that was the right decision. He was such a arrogant pup over at the hospital! I wanted to punch him in the nose!"

"Oh, the Irish temper."

Quinn laughed.

Someone was standing near the table. Quinn looked up, to see Elizabeth Webber standing there with a cup of coffee.

"Oh, hello," Quinn said.

"Hi," Elizabeth answered. "Hi, Joe."

"How are you doing, Elizabeth?" Joe asked. "Have a seat."

Elizabeth looked at Quinn, who nodded.

"We have our Boxcar Art Exhibit about ready to go," Elizabeth said. "Next week, we should be ready. I hope you both come out to see it."

"I would really like to," Joe said.

"Yes," Quinn echoed. "Did you know Zander passed the test?"

"No," Elizabeth answered. "I'm glad to hear that."

"He is really happy," Quinn said.

"You and your brother and the other nurse," Elizabeth went on, "I saw you at the Nurse's Ball. You were pretty good."

"Thanks."

"Then at Nicholas and Gia's wedding I met this Sean guy," Elizabeth said. "Then I saw him again recently. He was asking me questions about Emily's DUI case."

"I guess you know he was my old boyfriend from college?"

"Yes," Elizabeth grinned a little. "He came to talk to me about the night of the engagement party and the accident. He talked to Paul, too. Wouldn't you have loved to have been able to be a fly on the wall to hear that one?"

"Maybe. Ah, no. Who cares what they have to say?" Quinn stirred her coffee, smiling a little bit.

"I told Sean I didn't notice Emily drinking at the party," Elizabeth went on, "We went over that – I only remember Lucky making a show of getting her a glass of champagne. Then he started asking me about the time I visited Emily in the hospital. You weren't there, Quinn, I guess you were on another shift. She had been telling me about how she wanted to ask Zander about his family. She was complaining about how he never told her. We had been talking about that at the party. Cheryl asked Gia about her honeymoon, Gia said Oksana was giving her the time off, that led Cheryl onto Zander's problems with his parents. Emily was right there. But later on, in the hospital, Emily said that when the accident happened, she was going to see Zander. To ask him about what Cheryl had told her about his family. I didn't think much of it. As I was telling Sean, I started to wonder. AJ was driving her to go see Zander? That doesn't sound likely to me."

"You mean you think that statement means she was driving?" Quinn asked, drawn into solving the mystery in spite of herself. "Do you think that's what Sean got out of it?"

"I don't know. He's good at avoiding reactions. But the police talked to me about it and never got onto the subject of my visit to Emily in the hospital. Here was this Sean trying to help Emily, but he could have hurt her, because I remember this now. It does suggest it, doesn't it? And I told V. about it so the prosecution would know. Part of me wants to be quiet about it, because of damaging Emily's case, but part of me wants to be a good citizen and tell the truth of what I know. Emily's supposed to be my best friend, but I'm no longer real impressed by that. I keep waiting for one of her relatives to come and yell at me about it, because that's their way."

"There was something about how she was asking for Zander when she first woke up, too," Quinn said. "Though only her family heard that, and they won't say it now. Adding that to your information – well, it doesn't really prove she was driving, I guess. What do you think Joe?"

"It is more suggestive than proof," Joe said. "AJ has to say he was taking her to Zander, though. I mean, if they are telling falsehoods, they have to get their false story straight between the two of them."

"Maybe that will bring it out. If AJ says something different, because he doesn't know that part of it," Elizabeth said.

"Sean will tell AJ about it, and help them get their stories straight," Quinn said. "At least, he could."

"An honest lawyer," Joe grinned.

AJ sat on a park bench with Joanna, tossing one of Michael's plastic balls. "This gets worse," he said. "I should have realized it."

"What now?" Joanna asked. Her children and Michael were playing a few feet away.

"Never start lying, Joanna," he said. "Once you start, you have to keep doing it. Now I have to say I was taking Emily to see Zander."

"How is that?"

"She told someone else she was going to see him when the accident happened."

"You and she have to get your stories straight, of course," Joanna said. "One would think that would go without saying."

"I don't know why I didn't think about that," he said. "She had to have been going somewhere. These lawyers complicate it no end by bringing everything up."

"Yeah, everything."

"Emily could have said anything to anybody over this time," AJ observed.

"Well, aren't you in cahoots?"

"Not really! I was doing all this without her!"

"See, it doesn't even work," Joanna said. "For crying out loud, let your sister take her lumps like you did."


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8, PG-13**

Sean got himself a room over Kelly's. Emily had showed it to him. "I lived in this one," she said.

When he moved into it, she went over to see how he was settling in.

She looked around and sighed. "All so different. I remember Zander coming up here."

"What were you going to see him for, anyway? The night of the accident, I mean."

"I was going to ask him about his family."

"Huh?" Sean laughed. "That's worth leaving a party for?"

"I wasn't having the greatest time."

"OK."

"And Zander had never told me anything. I remember asking him once where his family was. He wouldn't say. He got very upset. I pointed out to him once that I knew nothing about him. Not even whether he had any brothers and sisters. He got really upset when I mentioned that. Brothers and sisters. He said he didn't want to talk about the past, only the future."

"But didn't that make you awfully suspicious?"

"That he wouldn't talk about them?"

"Yeah."

"No."

"Why not? Who does that? Anybody would answer that question easily! How many brothers and sisters do you have? You just answer."

"He didn't want to tell me."

"So you didn't want to know?"

"I did, but he didn't want to tell me?"

"Didn't you wonder why?"

"No."

"He could have killed them!"

"He didn't."

"I know, but for all you knew, he could have!"

"He was upset talking about them."

"Which he might have been if he'd killed them!"

"He didn't kill them, Sean! They live here now!"

"I know, I know. But didn't you wonder why he wouldn't tell you about them?"

"Of course."

"So didn't you ask again?"

"No. He said he didn't want to talk about them."

Sean felt like hitting himself in the head. "Where was I? OK. So you leave the party because he's going to tell you now?"

"Now his mother lives here. She runs Deception. Everyone seems to know."

"So you thought he'd tell you now?"

"Yes. Maybe."

"Where were you going? I mean, did you know where he lives?"

"Alexis said he lived with her. I know where she lives."

"So you are going to Alexis' place when the accident happened."

"Yeah, that's what I just told you."

"What made you think of it?"

"Think of what?"

"Of Zander! Why just then did you want to go and ask him about his family?"

"They were talking about him at the party."

"Who was?"

"Gia, and another girl. This girl said she used to go out with Zander, and he'd never told me about her, either."

"Did you and Zander ever talk?"

"Of course we did!"

"OK, just kidding. Wow, you are exhausting."

He went and put his hand to her lower back, pulling her towards him. He started kissing her.

They kissed for awhile. Then he maneuvered her over to the bed. He pushed her down across it, and got down himself, beside her, and kissed her again.

She kissed him, as he leaned over her, for a while, until he started pulling at her shirt – he pulled it out of her belt and his hand went to her bare stomach. In a second his hand was behind her back, undoing her bra.

She sat up and moved away.

"What's wrong?" he asked, automatically, prepared for another round of irrational discussion, not totally turned off by the idea, figuring he could distract her again.

"Let's not," she answered, straightening her clothes back.

"Oh, so she doesn't want to go to bed with me," Sean addressed someone up on the ceiling.

"I don't mean forever," she faltered.

"OK," he said. "Oh, does this place remind you of Zander too much?"

"No, it isn't that."

"Oh. Is it your first time?"

"No," she said, a little testily.

"Did you have a bad experience?" he asked.

She didn't answer.

"You can tell me," he said. "I understand."

She looked at him. "I don't know," she said. "It's just no big deal, that's all, and I'm tired now."

"No big deal?" he began to get interested. After all, he could see he wasn't getting laid.

"No, it's not such a big deal as everybody makes out."

"You were just with the wrong guy. You've only been with one guy."

"No."

"Who else?" he asked, conversationally.

"Vinnie."

"Oh, the guy with the kid?"

"Yes."

"So he didn't ring your chimes all that much."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you didn't find it very exciting."

"Exciting? No."

"Did you tell him?"

"Of course not."

"Well, he couldn't do anything different if you didn't tell him."

"We broke up."

"OK. You did it only once."

"Yes."

"He was unkind."

"No, he was nice. He told me to relax."

"You were nervous."

"I didn't think so, but he must have thought so."

Sean looked around for awhile. He watched her. She seemed to be far off.

"Were you with Zander more than once?"

"No."

"So he was nice, too? Told you to relax?"

"He didn't tell me anything. Didn't say anything. That was the first time for me. I felt – like he was out of control; like I couldn't stop him if I wanted to."

"You mean he raped you?"

"No! I did not say that!"

"OK, OK."

"I said I could not have stopped him if I wanted to. Since I didn't want to, that didn't matter. I'm only trying to describe it since you ask so many questions."

"OK, well he sounds passionate enough. Still, it didn't ring your chimes."

"What?"

"Never mind. Let's go and get something for dinner, shall we?"


	9. Chapter 9

**Part 9**

Alexis and Quinn were at the Outback for dinner.

"You have to eat more than popcorn," Jerry was saying, "I may have the staff deliver three solid meals a day to you."

"That would be great, Jerry," Quinn said, enthusiastically. "I can even get a good menu from the hospital that covers all the vitamins and minerals."

"Don't you dare!" Alexis laughed and took a small paperback book from Quinn and starting skimming it over. "OK, so this is the Nursing Ethics Code."

"I marked there, the parts that seem to apply," Quinn said, anxiously.

"OK. – confidentiality - need for health care does not warrant unwanted intrusion into the patient's life. Unnecessary disclosure of data. Rights, well being of patient and safety of patient should be the primary factors in the exercise of judgment about what information to disclose. Share only with members of the health care team that have a real need to know. Not absolute – can be modified to protect the patient, innocent third parties, etc. etc."

"That part bothers me. Joanna, and I was the instigator, told the details to V."

"They maybe only mean making sure the files aren't out for just anybody to read. Or that you don't share the medical file with just anybody. Only people who need to see it for health care reasons. And it isn't absolute, either. For example, you can make an exception if there is an innocent third party to protect. I wonder what they mean by that?"

"Probably that has something to do with people who might be infected with something the patient has," Quinn suggested.

"Which is a medical issue. Also the public. It should be protected from drunk drivers, shouldn't it? See, none of this really addresses evidence of a crime, which, when you come down to it, is what you revealed. If you were her lawyer and noticed her bruises, it would be a breach of lawyer-client confidentiality. I would think the more likely case for a nurse might be the opposite. Say someone else had gotten killed in that crash, you saw the evidence, and you didn't tell anyone, and later got charged with obstruction of justice - you could defend by saying you thought this meant you shouldn't reveal it."

"It is kind of an unwarranted intrusion to her life."

"_Unwanted_ intrusion. That's the word it says here. But if course someone who committed a crime would say it was unwanted."

"True. You know, that part - I came closer to crossing the line there with Zander."

"No, there you for sure had this protection of the patient thing."

"Yeah. That's a good thought. But look at this section."

"Professional boundaries," Alexis read – "practice of nursing has an inherently personal component. Purpose is preventing illness, alleviating suffering, protecting, promoting and restoring health of patients. Intimate nature of, and involvement in very important and stressful life events, risks blurring limits."

"There I wonder about Zander's case. But you could say promoting the health of the patient there, too, I guess. I wasn't so really involved with him personally until he had been discharged. I did get really involved with taking care of Peter, but he went straight to my family and I wasn't pumping Peter for information or anything."

Alexis was looking at her, smiling. "But even if that all violated the ethics rules - "

"I'd have to do it the same way again!" Quinn's face lit up.

"You're just the one, you know," Alexis said, with a grin, "that I would have picked out for him. If I had been of a matchmaking type."

"Really? Thank you. But I really wonder if I would've noticed those bruises, or at least, their significance, if she was just an ordinary patient I'd never met before. Knew nothing about."

"On the other hand, say somebody wanted to call you on the carpet about it, what are they going to say? She should have got away with drunk driving in the interests of her health?"

"Does sound sensible when you put it that way, Alexis. If I ever need a lawyer, I think you're it."

"I would hope so!"

"OK," Quinn laughed. 

"Then there are also the doctors too," Alexis said. "They must have ethical rules just like this, probably along the same lines, even stricter. I could look those up too. See if there's a case on it somewhere."

"Only if it interests, you, Alexis. I mean, you've already given me enough. I feel better."

"If you ended up having to testify, and some lawyer for Emily were to start in on it," Alexis said, "they would not be doing it to get you into trouble with some ethics board. They'd only be doing it to try to cast doubt on your credibility. Even then it doesn't follow that – even if you think she's about to steal your boyfriend - she still had the bruises. And you still saw them. You saw what you saw. Never let some lawyer shake what you saw with your very eyes."

"OK. Whew! I hadn't thought of all that. If I have to testify, I'll think I'll die of nervousness!"

"No, you won't," Alexis said. "You'll live."

"I'll try."

Jerry was there then with dinner. "Right from Australia!" he said, triumphantly! "Lobster!"

"You're going to spoil us!" Quinn said.

"I try," he said.

"Tell me this, Emily," Sean said, sitting at a table at the Outback, noticing Alexis Davis sitting with Quinn on the other side, deep in conversation over a book. "How can you so constantly maintain you were in love with someone you knew so little about? Real name, siblings, parents, past, education, medical history - "

"OK, OK. I get your point, Sean!"

"But how can you be?"

Emily shrugged. "You can."

Sean sighed, and took a sip of water. Here was another brick wall.

He tried anyway.

"But people just talk. Look how we just talk. And naturally, things come up. It must have come up repeatedly."

"It didn't."

"What did you talk about?"

"I don't remember now."

"Your family?"

"Yes. Usually one of my family members was saying or doing something to break us up."

"Oh, OK. So merely maintaining the relationship at its current level took up all your time."

"Yeah. We were in love."

"How can you say that about somebody you don't know?"

Emily shrugged again. "I knew him."

"You must know me 10 times better, though, still. You know me and about my family. I don't think you know a lot about them, but that you generally know where they are, by your standards, you know them really, really well."

"I don't think I do know you better."

"How is that, by what I've just said?"

"It's you. I don't know _you_ as well as I knew Zander."

"How does that work out when you never knew who he really was?"

"I knew who he really was."

Sean was becoming highly amused. "Are you saying this was a physical thing? You had a tremendous physical attraction and that meant you knew him?"

"It was love."

"Which is the same as physical attraction."

"No."

"What's the difference?"

"I don't know. What do you mean?"

"I mean, say you are really having the hots for some guy and you think he's cute but you know he's not for you. Would that be physical attraction - you like the idea of touching him, but you don't love him - at least, not right now?"

"OK. I had a physical attraction to Zander, and I loved him."

"Both."

"Yes."

"OK, but I'm still perplexed. I can see where you might have a physical attraction to someone you don't know, but I don't yet understand how you can _love_ someone you don't know."

"I knew _him._ It was his family I didn't know. I don't have to love his family to love him. He knew my family and he didn't love _them_."

"It's one thing to not be acquainted with his family," Sean answered. "Like you aren't acquainted with mine. But I would tell you their names and where they live and about things that happened while I was growing up. I might tell you about how my sister and I took riding lessons. Anything. How can you have a conversation with someone, or many conversations with someone, and nothing like that come up?"

"You can. You're talking about all these details. Like I don't have to know his father's middle name to know _him_."

"I understand that. I'm only saying how do you get to know someone well enough to love them unless you've talked to them long enough for all those details to happen to come up?"

"Why would they come up if you are talking about something else? Especially if he didn't want to talk about it."

"I'd still have to wonder why he didn't want to talk about it."

"Would you tell me all those details about yourself?"

"Sure. They just come up! But if you asked me, of course I would tell you."

"Who have you dated in the past?"

"OK, I'll tell you. In high school in Kentucky - I went out with Lynn. It lasted all the way through college until my junior year. When I was a junior I met Quinn, and by the end of that year, I was with Quinn. All the way up to the end of my senior year and through my first two years of law school. When she graduated, I asked her to marry me. She said no. In my third year of law school, I wasn't seriously involved with anybody. My first two years as a lawyer I feel like all I do is work. See how easy that was? I already know you went out with a guy who became a singer, Zander and Vinnie, who is a student at UK. And why would either of us refuse to talk about it?"

"Zander told me he never had anybody serious before."

"Well, even though I wasn't seriously involved, I remember, my third year of law school, dating Laurie, who had two little sisters who visited her at law school from time to time. I know her parents lived in Illinois with these two little sisters. And I would only have said I was in love with Lynn and Quinn, maybe even only Quinn. Before I ever met Quinn's family I knew that her brothers were named Brad and Tim and they were younger and still in school, I knew her father was an engineer, that she had a godfather she was close to, that her mother was a teacher named Kathleen and that they all lived in Port Charles, New York. Eventually I met them when they visited school. She dated Scott in high school. I can do better. She dated Scott _Jankowski_ in high school. She dated him the first semester of her freshman year and was always writing home to him and calling him and he called her, it was just like me and Lynn. I even remember that later, when Quinn and I were dating, Scott was now dating someone else and we met them at one of the restaurants here. Even girls I wasn't seriously involved with I knew something about, and Lynn and Quinn I knew a lot about. And of course, Lynn was from Lexington and her family knew my family anyway, and still does. But Quinn knew, and may even remember, that my father's name is James and my mother's name if Betty, and my sister is Debbie and that Debbie is two years older than I am and that Debbie showed me where there was an old tree house in the woods and that Debbie and I played cards there and met our friends there and their names, even, she might remember some of those. In fact, _you_ already know most of that! Not to mention that I went to college at Notre Dame and to Law School at the University of Kentucky and what firm I worked for. And I'm sorry if that story if that's long and if I think it is way more typical of ordinary experience. Doesn't make it better. Just more ordinary. And that I think it's your experience that is strange - and therefore more interesting."

"I think you are trying to prove I was never in love with Zander, but you aren't proving it to me."

"OK, OK! Still, grant me I may have proved that it was unusual!"

"What difference would that make?" Emily asked.

"Eat your dessert, Emily" Sean said, laughing and shaking his head.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 10**

Zander and Quinn walked down the path in the woods to the Box Car. V. and Elizabeth had tacked signs to trees to lead people there.

They saw the Connors and Joe Quinn were there already.

Elizabeth and V. were wearing colonial dresses, which Carly had made them. Elizabeth looked like a farm girl or town girl, while V. looked like more of an elegant city woman. Their boyfriends were the opposite; both colonial, but it was Paul who was dressed like a colonial city gentleman. Jasper Jacks looked like he was a blacksmith.

"You _are_ adorable," Kathleen was informing them all. "Can I get you to visit my class like that?"

The colonials liked that idea.

Zander and Quinn admired them. Elizabeth had an engagement ring on. She showed it to Quinn when she realized Quinn noticed it. "We got engaged," she said.

"Oh, congratulations," Quinn said. "When is the wedding?"

"In November, when my parents come," Elizabeth answered.

They walked on and came across Paul. Quinn congratulated him, too. "Thank you, Quinn," he said, simply. "Hello, Smith," he said, holding out his hand.

Zander shook his hand, a little cautiously, but he shook it.

"Well, well," he said to Quinn, when they had walked along. He had taken her hand.

"How interesting," Quinn said.

"Does it bug you?"

"I don't have any reason for it to bug me."

"OK, but does it?"

She laughed. "No," she said, and gave him a kiss. "It surprises me. But - I'm used to it already! Next!"

He smiled and walked on with her. They went up into the box car.

"Look," he said. "Alexis and Jerry. Looking at the painting of you and the race car."

"Do you think they ran into each other here?"

"Maybe they came together!"

"Wouldn't that be something!"

Quinn and Zander went to stand behind Jerry and Alexis.

They turned and noticed the younger couple. "There's the Girl Racer herself!" Jerry exclaimed. "How are you?"

"Pretty well," Quinn answered. "How are you two?"

"Pretty well," Alexis said, smiling a little, then looking sideways as Jerry, as she answered Quinn. "We had some lunch at my place – Jerry's not real big on restaurants – and then came here."

"That's nice!" Quinn said.

Jerry couldn't help laughing. "Arranged it all ourselves!" he said.

"Very good," Zander said. "Good job," he seemed to direct this to Jerry. Then he looked at the painting. "I wonder if Elizabeth will sell me this painting."

"_Girl Racer_?" Alexis asked. "Ask her. If she's really mercenary, she could get top dollar for it, from you."

"Maybe I should get an agent," Zander said.

"OK, I'll do it," Alexis said, with a laugh.

Jackson Delaney had brought his sister and their cousin to the Box Car Art Exhibit, because his sister's friend knew about it, because one of the artists was her uncle's girlfriend. So he and Branwyn and their cousin Kara were there looking at the paintings when he saw Amanda Friel looking at them, too.

They started to talk, and Amanda said she knew about it because Zander had told her to come to it. The girls had gotten started on the whole project, helping Zander out with history by doing drawings.

"I hope he passed that test," Jackson said. "He had a ton of help!"

"He did," Amanda told him. "It was just right for him, to learn this way."

"So you won't have any more trips?"

"We might. We've got college to get started on. I'm supposed to help get him on the right foot. For the summer he has History 21 – American History."

"Who is Zander?" Branwyn asked.

"My student, that I tutor," Amanda said.

"I flew them to Monticello, and to Quebec City," Jackson explained. "They went to study history!"

"Cool," Kara said.

"I could go for that," Branwyn agreed.

"There are those guys we met," Kara said.

Branwyn looked towards where Kara was looking.

"That's Zander's brother, Peter," Amanda observed.

"Oh, and Tim," Branwyn recognized him. "They're talking to Taryn, so we could go over there, Kara."

"By all means, do," Amanda laughed.

"He said he wanted to date other girls," Taryn was saying.

"So you broke up with him," Tim said.

"Hi!" they all said, stopping, when Branwyn and Kara came up to them.

"She told you how she and Jeremy broke up," Branwyn observed.

"Yeah, he wants to date other girls," Tim said. "Makes it only fair that she gets to date other guys, doesn't it?"

"Sounds fair to me," Branwyn said.

"Lemme show you this painting of my brother's girlfriend, Taryn," Pete said. "You want to see it, too?" he directed this at Kara. "Come with us."

Kara accepted this invitation, finding it irresistible.

"Taryn doesn't seem too upset about it," Tim said. "But I guess you knew her better."

"She's more upset than she acts like," Branwyn answered.

This conversation caused them to linger behind.

"American History 21," Kathleen way saying, amused, to Amanda. "They still use the same number they used when I was there."

"What else do you think Zander should take besides that?" Amanda asked.

"Music," Kathleen said. "That would be an elective, but would balance out nicely."

"Do you think he'd find it easy, you mean?"

"In a way. To him, yeah, it may come easy, or balance against having to memorize all those facts for American History."

"Balance the left brain and the right brain."

"Yeah! Like that."

"I'll talk to him about it," Amanda said. "I think I see what you mean."

"Such a big help you are," Tim laughed, when he saw Pete later, after Branwyn and Kara had gone off with Jackson.

"Well, did it work? Did you ask her?"

"Yes." Tim grinned mischievously.

"And she said?"

"She said she'd go!"

"Cool."

"Very cool. And you impressed the other two with your art exhibiting."

"That I don't know about! You're the Romeo."

"Yeah, I guess I am," Tim hit Pete with his baseball cap.

They came upon Kathleen. "Well?" she asked. "Did you ask her?"

"Yes, and she said she'd go, Mom."

"Wonderful."

"Pete took the other two girls off so I could ask her."

"Thank you, Pete," Kathleen said, her eyes twinkling, "We knew you could draw any number of girls away with you."

"Oh, thanks, Mrs. Con," Peter smiled at her, and put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed them. "I try to provide that service wherever I can."

"It's a tough job, but he can do it if he puts his mind to it," Tim said with a grin. "I'm going to go and tell Quinn." He walked off.

Oksana had come out, being that there were signs all over the hallways at Deception advertising the Exhibit. Then Elizabeth had come and told her she had a painting of Zander in the exhibit.

"Hi, Oksana, let me show you the one where I painted Zander into the Continental Congress," Elizabeth said.

Oksana smiled when she saw it. "So clever, you are," she said to Elizabeth.

"Hey, Elizabeth," Alexis said, "Will you sell me _Girl Racer_?"

"So long as I always know where it is," Elizabeth answered. "It's one of my favorites."

"It won't go far, of that I can assure you. What's your asking price?"

They went off, haggling.

Zander went over to Oksana and the painting of the Continental Congress. "I get involved in some good stuff sometimes," he said.

"You mean this Congress?"

He laughed. "Of course. We declared independence."

"Oh, and the Constitution and that kind of good thing?"

Quinn looked up from her conversation with Tim to see Zander and Oksana standing by a painting. She went over to them. As she came upon them, she heard the conversation going on in Russian.

As soon as Zander saw her, he switched to English almost in mid-sentence.

"You don't have to switch right over on my account," Quinn said. "I like listening. I try to make out a word here and there."

"What words do you think you know, nurse?" Zander demanded, drawing her to him.

"None. Or, no, _nyet_, that is my entire vocabulary, but isn't the word 'I' the most used in conversations? I try to guess what word that might be."

"Which do you think it is?"

"Is it _me-neya_?"

"That's me, to me."

"Don't tell me. I'll keep trying to guess. Go ahead."

"This is a wonderful girl," Zander said to Oksana. Quinn could tell he was saying something nice about her, though. She put her arm around him and leaned her head on his shoulder.


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 11**

Sonny had fled to his island. His business had gotten out of control and fallen out from under him. He had never dreamed it could happen. But the warehouse was suddenly crawling with feds, and surrounded by legitimate businesses importing coffee and storing it at a lower price, with people who all refused to be intimidated into upping their prices. Intimidation of other people was the only way he knew how to do business.

It was he that was getting squeezed out. Kelly's, the Outback, all the dock businesses suddenly refused to pay any protection money. Naturally, Sonny's goons had gone to burn these establishments down, but they were surrounded by security guards and the fire department appeared to have take up residence there, they came so quickly.

He had to sell off his legitimate holdings and get out for now.

The next meeting of the Board of Directors of ELQ infuriated Edward Quartermaine and his grandson Ned Ashton, annoyed his son and daughter-in-law, and amused his grandson AJ.

Edward, Alan, Monica, Ned, AJ and Jason went to the meeting as always, and waited for Jasper Jacks and Sonny or his representative. Jasper Jacks came in, and the usual insults began and continued as they waited for Sonny.

But Sonny did not come. Instead, Alexis Davis came in, with Sergei Kanishchev.

"What are you doing here?" demanded the elderly CEO.

"I'm the representative," Alexis said. "Sergei owns 20 of ELQ, as a result of purchase of shares from Sonny Corinthos."

"That criminal cannot sell his shares to someone outside the company," Edward proclaimed.

"Take it to court," Alexis said.

After the meeting, and after Alexis, Sergei and Jax had left, Edward was in a tizzy. "That criminal had to sell out and he wanted to stick it to us one last time!"

"He certainly did pick the best way to do it," AJ mused. But he just wasn't feeling the "stick." Somehow it was all too ridiculous. "See if you'd kept quiet, Grandfather, you wouldn't be in this mess, but you made enough noise so that Sonny knows you don't want to deal with that Russian pirate."

"AJ has a point," Ned said, and it was a big deal for Ned to grant AJ anything. "The Russian probably didn't even have to pay Sonny an extra premium. The satisfaction Sonny must have gotten out of that transfer!"

AJ laughed.

"Stop laughing!" Edward ordered. "That deviant's father now owns part of our business!"

"We're over the deviant, aren't we?" AJ asked, "What do we have to care about his father?"

"Why, the father may undermine this company wherever he can for his revenge!"

"Oh, baloney, Grandfather," said AJ. "Zander is perfectly happy with Quinn, one of the nurses at GH, who he's been dating for a long time now. He has no beefs over the thing with Emily. Get over yourself."

"How naïve you are today, AJ," Edward said.

"Quiet, father!" Alan finally had heard enough. "AJ is right. We're better off, this Russ-Sergei is not organized crime, so we don't have to deal with that anymore."

"But he's undermining us," Ned pointed out.

"Well, he can't now, can he?" Monica said. "Wouldn't it make a conflict of interest for him?"

"Yeah, it would," Ned agreed, sounding tentative.

"We're going to have to do something to get rid of him," Edward declared. "Find somebody to buy him out. If he won't sell, then we'll know he has sinister motives."

Zander was studying in the room below the bedroom when Quinn came out of the shower, ready to leave for work.

She'd have a nice evening with him, listening to music and making love and watching TV from bed. She was on the midnight shift, so now she was on her way out.

"Don't stay up too late," she said.

"I feel good," he said.

"Me too, Sandy," she was standing behind him. She put her arms around him and leaned her head against his, looking down at his work.

"That's Russian?" she asked. "How do you come to be studying it?"

"I have to review the grammar, to pass the test," he answered, caressing her arm, "the test that I can take to get credit for the class without taking the class."

"That's a good idea."

"It could save me some time. Between these tests and going in the summers, I could graduate in three years or even two and a half."

"I'm fascinated that those hieroglyphics mean something," she said.

He laughed. "It's not as hard as Tim makes it out to be."

"Tim says the alphabet is OK, actually, he says it's the rest that's tough, but you and Pete've helped him a whole lot."

"I can actually hold a conversation with Tim, now. It's basic. But it's a conversation."

"I like that," Quinn said. She kissed him on the top of the head. "I hate going," she said, massaging his neck a little bit.

"I hate to see you go, nurse." He got one more kiss before she took off.


	12. Chapter 12

**Part 12**

Quinn stopped to get some coffee at Kelly's. Humming as she stirred in the cream, she looked up to see Sean.

He had come down from upstairs. Quinn wondered what he was doing up there.

"I got a room upstairs," he said, as if he read her mind. He asked for a cup of coffee. "It's Emily's old room."

"You really like Emily, huh?" Quinn asked him.

"Of course."

"You were willing to move up here for her, Sean. You even have to take a test to continue in your job."

"Which I wouldn't do for you? I might have."

"I wasn't referring to that."

Sean smiled. "What do you see in this guy you're dating anyway? From Emily, I gather he's kind of strange."

"Strange?"

"Well, for instance, he never would tell her the simplest fact about his past or his family."

"I already know about all that, and why."

"She doesn't seem to have minded it," he said. "She insists she loved him."

"Be careful, Sean," Quinn advised him. "If you don't do everything her way, she drops you. And if her family doesn't like you, they tell her you did something wrong, and she drops you with no further questions. And that includes when she says she loves you. Love, as she puts it. Heck, she probably so-called loves you already."

"Nah," he said. "To tell you the truth, I think she loves Zander still. I can't understand why, but that's another question."

"Loves? No. Unless you are falling for her definition of love."

"I would like to talk to this Zander," Sean said. "He sounds unusual."

"I don't think he has the time to be part of your research into unusual personalities."

"Are you still racing cars?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"Just making conversation."

"Oh, so you're going to be my friend now."

"Why not?"

Quinn shrugged. "Suit yourself." She turned and left.

"Your grades are terrible, Emily," Sean said, looking at her report card, at the Quartermaine family breakfast, after he had politely asked if he could see it, and Emily had shrugged her shoulders.

"I know."

"If you want to get into law school - - "

"I know. I had a lot on my mind all year."

"Maybe you should cut back on your work hours."

"I like work better than studying."

"I really don't understand it," said Monica. "She was at the head of her high school class in her senior year."

"So she did well all through high school?"

"She did OK, but especially well her senior year," Monica said. "Which is a miracle, because of Zander."

"How does Zander reduce grades?" Sean asked.

Monica smiled. She liked Sean. "I guess he doesn't. You would think he would, though. Spending all that time with him and the high stress of getting oneself involved in his legal problems."

"Why was it stressful?" Emily asked, as if it had happened to someone other than herself. "Alexis was working on it. She told me what to do."

"Well, but you walked out with Zander when he got out of jail and got shot at. That could have happened any time."

"You got shot at?" Sean asked.

"No, they were shooting at Sonny, and Zander."

"So I take it you didn't get shot?"

"No, Zander did. But it was in the arm, and he recovered really quickly. Sonny got shot bad."

"Still, you're in a line of fire, and that's really got to be scary," Sean said. "That would scare me away from hanging out with somebody, if I thought someone was out there trying to shoot them."

"Is that how you'd treat your clients?" Emily asked him.

"Good one, Emily!" Sean said. "But then you'd have let Alexis be the one in the line of gunfire."

"She was there too."

"After that, much as we tried to get Emily to stay away, Zander was often in the line of fire," Monica continued. "He was to testify against the bigger fish."

"That'll do it," Sean surmised.

"We had to get a bodyguard. She gave him the slip. To go and be with Zander."

"Should have just gotten the bodyguard for Zander," Sean observed.

Monica stopped for a minute. "That's not a bad idea, Sean! I wish you'd been around then!"

Bernard Bach was ready to brain AJ. They were having a meeting at Bach's office at Baldwin & Baldwin.

"So you were taking her to Zander's but you don't know where Zander lives?"

"She would have told me where to go when we got to the end of Lake Road."

"I see. Since she had a headache, and she was tired, you were driving. But she was ready for another visit."

"Well, I didn't think she should drive, but that didn't mean she couldn't talk to Zander."

"You were willing to take her to talk to this Zander?"

"Why not? It wasn't such a hard thing to drop by. And I could always hope he wasn't home and then just get her to go home. Deal with Zander another day."

"This was important enough to leave a party for?"

"Sure. It was a whim of hers to go see Zander, and the party wasn't that big of a deal."

"Did Emily have a seat belt on?"

"No. I could kick myself for that. I just assumed she'd have the brains to put it on. I don't know what she could have been thinking."

Bach sighed. "Is she a smart girl, your sister?"

"Yes and no," AJ said. "Book smart, yes. As to the rest, not always. Take Zander, instance. She got involved in his problems. She finally gets herself out of it. Then she's here to be in a wedding, and rather than enjoy the party, when she hears something about his past came out, she wants to talk to him about it right then, even to leave a party. Shows me she's still attached to Zander. And she got involved with some other guy who didn't work out. Smart for academics. Dumb when it comes to her love life. I really worry about that. I hope she grows out of it."

"But you didn't talk her out of it, and even took her."

"Better to go with me than to go without me. I'm only her older brother. I don't have total control. She's over 18, anyway."

"OK. So you can't talk her out of going to see Zander, though she has too much of a headache to drive."

"It sounds odd," AJ said, "and Zander is the biggest headache there is. But we've always tried to get Emily to quit being interested. Breaking up with him doesn't do it, necessarily, I guess."


	13. Chapter 13

**Part 13**

There was a lot of noise in the pits at the speedway. Zander made his way down to Quinn's car. Joe, Danny and the boys were working on it. 

"Hey, Zander! You want to help?" Danny said as he looked up and saw him.

"Yes." He grabbed a can of oil and passed it up.

"You may want to know," Danny said, grinning, pouring oil, "Sean the Shyster was here. Looking for you!"

"For me? Here?"

Joe shrugged. "We don't know why he looked here, either. We know why he wants to talk to you. Or why he said he wants to talk to you."

"He's defending little Emily from persecution," Danny explained.

"Isn't that _pro_secution?" Joe asked, grinning.

"Well, old Shyster made it sound like persecution," Danny said. "Anyway, Zander, he thinks you know something about where she was going."

"I really don't."

"I don't think it matters where she was going anyway," Joe said. "How can it be a defense to drunk driving that you were going any particular where?"

"Not that I can see," Danny said. "I think Shyster Sean is just pulling our chains."

"Quinn worried about them questioning her," Joe said. "Like they're going to say she only said it to protect her own position with you," he said to Zander. "She even worried she did that."

"I have this knack for trouble that won't go away," Zander said. "How am I still getting caught up in Quartermaine shenanigans? What a pain in the neck. I wish Quinn didn't get stuck in the middle of it. Bloody English."

"Damn them all," Danny grinned.

Zander watched the race with Alexis and Jerry. "Oh no, here comes my persecutor," he said.

"What does he want with you?" Alexis asked, seeing Sean making his way toward them.

"He seems to be working on Emily's case."

Sean said hello to Alexis, "I'm looking for Zander," he said.

"This is Zander," Alexis said, "Zander, this is Sean Monroe, a lawyer from Kentucky. I met him at my nephew Nicholas' wedding."

Sean sat down at the end of the bench, leaving Zander between himself and Alexis.

"So you're the one Emily was going to see when she had her accident," he said.

"I didn't know that, if it's true."

"So she had not called you?"

"No."

"No previous arrangement?"

"None."

"Do you know why she'd want to come and see you?"

"No."

"Some people at the party she was at were talking about your family, and she wanted to ask you about them. She says you never would tell her about them."

"That's true, but she was never curious until a year after she broke up with me. So why it was worth a trip I can't imagine."

"Well, you lost her over it. Do you kick yourself for not telling her?"

"She's lying to you. I lost her over her getting another guy at school. She wrote me she didn't want to see me any more with some other reason having to do with her brother AJ. She never was interested in me, or my family, or my past."

"She said she asked but you wouldn't tell her."

"Well, she went away easily. She didn't really care that much. Why she would be that interested now is hard to figure out."

"You're not so lucky in love, are you, Zander? You lose Emily and you end up with a playgirl type."

Zander laughed at Sean's description. "I don't see it that way, to my way of seeing it, you're the unlucky one in love. A graduate of Notre Dame and a lawyer and you went from a woman to a girl while I went from a girl to a woman."

"To tell you the truth, I don't think I'm ringing Emily's chimes."

"Might be the fact you aren't in jail. You don't need help. To Emily, that's boring."

"OK," Sean said, starting to become interested. 

"And does her family like you?"

"Yeah! What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, unless you want Emily to be interested in you."

"So you think she would be more interested in me if her family didn't like me."

"Yes."

"You're a straight shooter, I'll give you that! But I think she still loves you."

"If you think you're getting me back together with Emily so as to free Quinn for you, forget it."

"Would I do a thing like that?" Sean smiled his brightest smile.

"Emily's all yours. She's your problem."

"Maybe so, maybe so. She's my legal problem, anyway. Well thanks for your insights, Zander."

"What a nut," Zander said, to Alexis, by way of relief, after Sean had gone.

"Looks like he's out of your hair for now," Alexis smiled.

"For _now_," Zander said.


	14. Chapter 14

**Part 14 PG-13**

Quinn was on the midnight shift on her birthday. The other nurses had a little party, as they always did for each other.

When she got home, she went to sleep, and slept through till five. She got up and got dressed. She had about 12 messages on the phone, which always had the ringer shut off, since she set it that way for midnight shifts. She had once turned in back on for the day shift, but when she forgot to turn it back off, and phone rang while she was trying to sleep on a midnight shift, she found it so annoying that rather than try to remember to turn it off and on, she just turned it off for good. 

She turned her cell phone on. She had 7 messages on it. 

Someone knocked. She went to the door. Zander was there with two presents. "Happy Birthday," he said.

"Thank you," she hugged him awhile. "Come in. Are you any of these messages?"

"No. I knew you were on midnight, so I knew when to show up."

She smiled and went to kiss him again. 

"Aren't you going to open these?" he asked.

"OK." She took the one he picked as first.

It was a pearl necklace. 

"Thank you, that's so beautiful."

"Like you."

She kissed him awhile more.

"What's this?"

It was a book for beginners to learn Russian.

She hugged him again.

"I'll help you," he said.

She felt speechless, and choked up, and didn't know why.

Somehow it meant something to her more than expensive jewelry. It was like being asked to be a member of the family, or something.

"Thanks," she said, wiping her eye. "Thanks, Sander, for wanting to teach it to me."

He touched her face, not having expected her to be affected as much. He kissed her cheek. "You might want to kill me after trying," he said. "But never mind that. I have somewhere to take you before we get to your folks'"

"OK," she said.

They went down to his car; he had brought the Porsche.

They drove to a little street near the river, called Blake Street, in the older part of Port Charles. He pulled up in front of number 32.

"How did you know?" she asked, delighted.

"I work for a lawyer, you know. I've learned how to search the titles. I looked under Danny's fathers name."

"James Connor."

"Yeah. I found out he owned this one, number 32, from the 1970s to 1995. It looked like he bought it from another relative in the 70s, who owned from back into the 20s."

"His father. My grandfather lived here as a boy and still lived with his parents there even after he was married and had children. Some time after my great-grandmother died, my great-grandfather sold it to him, but still lived there with him and his family."

"So Danny had his grandfather living in the same house with him as he grew up."

"He did."

"Did you ever visit it?"

"When I was a kid. My grandparents still lived in it back then."

They leaned against the car, and looked at the house. Some children were playing on the sidewalk a little way up.

"There are a lot of memories on this street," Quinn said. "Thousands of stories, probably, of Irish immigrants long gone. Thousands of kids have played right there where those kids are playing."

"Including Little Danny."

"Yeah," she smiled, and sighed. "And all the characters that lived here. My grandparents and great aunts and uncles all told the same stories about the man who lived in number 28 way back when."

"Who was that?" Zander asked her.

"Well, he was named Hugh Duffy, and he was old even then," she said. "When my granddad was a little boy. Little things, nothing really dramatic. But they make a picture, or a history, a kind of slice of life."

"What did he do?"

"One thing he did was he came over the house - he was good friends with my great-grandfather - and saw that Aunt Maggie – she was a girl then - was drawing this figure skater, with her legs split, and he looked at the picture and said well, it looks like that girl done broke her straddle."

Zander laughed. "That does _not_ sound good," he said.

"My great-grandfather - Michael - asked Hugh what a straddle was," Quinn said. And he looked quickly at my grandfather, who was still a boy, and said to my great-grandfather, I can't tell you now Mick, the boy's here."

Zander laughed. Quinn laughed with him. "You like that story?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "You like it too, don't you, Quinn?"

"Then there is another one from when my grandfather was a boy. Hugh was painting his house. Jimmy, my grandfather, came along and said he didn't like the color. Hugh went in and yelled to his wife, Peggy, we have to go back and buy another can of paint. Jimmy doesn't like the color!"

"Does Jimmy like that story?"

"But of course. And he really liked Hugh. That's why he was always stopping to talk to him. Hugh sat out on his front porch a lot. Now, see those two front windows? That's where they always had the picture of Kennedy."

"John F. Kennedy?"

"Yes, they kept that there even years after he was assassinated."

"He was sort of one of them, made good, then?"

"I guess they thought so. He was born rich though."

"So maybe they were thinking of the whole family more than just him."

"You're right, I think Zander. Yeah. More like his grandfather was one of them, but then that family had succeeded. So all the rest thought they might too, I suppose."

They looked at the house a little longer.

"Then there is the famous case of Mary O'Herlihy."

"How did that case go?"

"She lived there, I think, at 26. One night way back, it must have been the twenties or earlier, something went wrong with the street lights - they created an eerie glow instead of the regular light. So, Mary got her rosary beads and her blessed candles and came over to my great grandfather's and pounded on the door. No one came right away, and she pounded and yelled let me the hell in, damn it! It's the end of the world! Open the goddammed door Mick Connor, and let me the hell in!"

"She thought it was the end of the world?"

"Yeah. They let her in, and they could hear her, and said, Mary, your language! And she said, we'll, damn it, it's the end of the damn world and he wouldn't let me the hell in!"

Zander smiled.

"They all thought it was funny," she explained. "So the story gave them a good laugh. They told it over and over and laughed at it over and over every time. Somehow it doesn't get old and stays funny, to the next generation."

"So you've got to picture these cars not here," he said. "Or much older models. And you can see that path from 26 to 32. How old was this lady at the time?"

"I don't think she was really old, because she was still yelling so loud and cursing like a sailor. I picture her in her 40s or 50s I guess."

"With her hair pinned up the old fashioned way."

"Wearing a cotton dress, faded, clean, but worn. And her rosary beads and her blessed candles."

"Did she run or walk?"

"Walked," Quinn decided. "But very fast. It was the end of the world after all."

"When the end of the world comes, are we supposed to go to the neighbor's?"

Quinn laughed. "That's what makes it funny, Sandy, nobody knows what the heck her purpose was - it seems to go without saying she wasn't about to be alone at the end of the world."

"I don't blame her, really!"

"How dull it would be today! She'd just call the electric company. And she'd have her prescription for Xanax!"

"Wonder why she didn't stop at Hugh's, he was closer. Must have been something about the Connors. She felt safer with them."

When Quinn and Zander got to Danny and Kathleen's, it was already crowded. Zander was really happy, being introduced to the old man, who sat in a chair, skinny and pale, not seeing or hearing too well, but his mind still alive, as you could see it in his eyes. Quinn's great-grandfather. "This is Zander, Granddad," Danny said. "Quinn's sweetheart."

Zander smiled at the old fashioned term – it fit the man's age.

Mike's wife, Kitty, had died a few years back.

"Pleased to meet you," he said, shaking Zander's hand. It did not seem he could manage much more, but he made Zander smile. Zander whispered to Quinn, "so that's Mick Connor, who wouldn't let poor old Mary in."

Quinn laughed. "And this is Granddad," she said to Zander, turning to another older man. "Jimmy Connor, who didn't like Hugh's house paint."

"You've been telling him Hugh Duffy stories, have you, Quinn?" Jimmy shook Zander's hand too. He was in his 70s, white haired, with a strangely young looking face. "You may hear a lot of those if you spend much time around this family."

"Yes, and I also understand that I'll hear them over and over," Zander said.

Jimmy and Danny laughed uproariously, along with Anne, Jimmy's wife, Quinn's grandmother. 

Joanna had come over, and so had Oksana, Pete and Rosa, Lisa and Diana, and even Sergei. There was a big cake, there being so many people, with candles and the words "Happy Birthday Quinn" in green icing.

Zander took Quinn back to her place. She smiled as he took her face in his hands and kissed her. She took his hand, and walked back with him to her bedroom.

"Thanks for a beautiful birthday, Sander, it's the best one I've every had." She leaned her chin on his chest, feeling happy, and relaxed, as she always did after he made love to her.

"How come you've been using Sander?" he asked. "I like it, I only wondered why."

"It's what the people closest to you use," she said. "I hope I earned it."

"Yes," he said. "I mean, you don't have to. But you are closest."

"I love you," she said, "I will earn that too, by my actions."

He pulled her closer and pushed her head down on his shoulder. He hugged her a minute. "You don't have to earn anything," he said. "And I love you."

"This is the best birthday I've ever had," she said.

"So far."


	15. Chapter 15

**Part 15**

Sergei was in Dr. Monica Quartermaine's office with his two sons.

"I don't see anything wrong on anyone's EKGs," she said. "I could say pretty much for sure Sergei does not have the syndrome. As for you two, you're young, and it could lurk, but it doesn't show up on these EKGs, which is at least a good sign. I would say, from here on out, have an EKG done every year. The older you get without any abnormal waves on it and without any problems, the less and less likely it is you have this syndrome."

"What about playing sports?" Zander asked. "We're both doing it. No problems, though."

"Some people who have this collapse playing a sport and that's when it's discovered, so it is something to watch out for. I would recommend only playing for fun. No stress, or overdoing it. I've read of college and professional athletes collapsing, you may have read about it in the papers. No one can say for sure that they would not have collapsed, though, had they not played at that level. If you ever feel faint, you should get medical attention right away and stop playing whatever you are playing. No sports heroics. What do you play?"

"Baseball," said Pete, "and soccer. San-Zander plays tennis."

"Really?" Monica looked at Zander as if seeing something for the first time. "Baseball sounds OK. You may want to take it up, Zander. Tennis isn't as good, because you run around, but you have the court to yourself. The pressure is greater with things like basketball and soccer. I'm just guessing here, really, but my gut is that if there's any danger it would come from high pressure contact sports. Then again, one of the cases was a figure skater, and they have the arena to themselves when competing."

"He was a pair skater," Sergei said. "There's a lotta pressure to that."

"I can imagine," Monica smiled.

"When the winter comes around, I coach you two skating," Sergei offered.

"What do you think of that, Sand-man?" said Pete, giving his brother a friendly shove.

"Good coach," Zander said, considering.

"That would amaze me," Monica said, smiling. "I think I'd make an effort to come out and see _that_."

Zander wanted to tell Quinn about the meeting with Monica, so he called her, and she asked him to meet her in the park. They walked along, hand in hand.

"Sounds like good news," she said, when he had explained what Monica had said. "Did you tell your Mom?"

"No. Probably Pete will, though." He looked thoughtful. "I'll talk to her."

They walked along awhile, looking around. "Want to go to Kelly's?" he asked her.

"Not really. Last time I was there I ran into Sean and he told me he lived upstairs."

"Did he grill you about Little Emily's case?"

"No, he was more interested in you, actually, Zander. He thinks you're strange for not telling her about your family."

They had come down to the bridge. He pulled her to him, as they looked over the water.

"I think he came to try to win you back, Quinn," Zander said.

"He's not going about it very well, if that's what he wants," she smiled up at him, and put her arms around his neck. "I don't see how he can get past how much I love you."

"He grilled me at the speedway, about how she was coming to see me when she had the accident and whether or not I knew she was coming."

"He did? What about?"

"If I knew Emily was coming to talk to me. He wanted to know if she called ahead. Then he complained Emily was not too interested in him, and he thinks she still loves me, and if you don't find all that fascinating enough, he called you a playgirl."

"A_ playgirl_? I wonder why he would say that!"

Zander smiled at her a little, "well, he knows you; he was really close to you once."

"But I dated him for four years, almost! That's hardly the idea I get from the word 'playgirl!'"

"I know," said Zander. "He's adopting Little Emily's opinion. She thinks she knows all about you, Quinn, and that you're never serious."

"When she's dated Sean for four years, then she can claim I'm never serious!"

Zander laughed.

"I told Sean, when I ran into him at Kelly's," Quinn said, "that she might change her mind all of a sudden and that he better look out for himself, and that if any of her family members don't like him they may get her to drop him and that she may do it even if she told him two minutes before that she loved him."

"I told him that she might be more interested in him if her family members disliked her going out with him."

"That too! Our matchmaking is challenged here. Well, Sander, enough of those two. How do you say 'idiots' in Russian? But did you and Oksana have a good time with Dr. Baldwin today?"

"Dr. Baldwin said I have a deficit and that a lot of people who have it take medication and it helps them. Oksana came close to having a fit."

"I've always thought Oksana was unflappable so I wish I had been there."

"She doesn't like medication at all, for some reason I don't understand. She never gets sick, so if she really were, I don't know what she'd do. But she's always been against them giving me medication for this deficit, and I've heard about it before. Teachers at school in Florida wanted to send me to a shrink for it."

"What do you think of it?"

"I don't like the idea of taking drugs, either. I know that's strange for a drug dealer."

"Well, you weren't exactly a pharmacist. You might have seen unpleasant effects on your - er, customer's lives. But I remember how hard it was to get you to take a pain-killer."

"Oh, yeah," he smiled. "That was hard for you, nurse."

"Maybe it would help to get the exact name of Dr. Baldwin's diagnosis and the name of the medication she wants you to take. We can do a little research so you can find out more about it. Find out about you."

"At least my heart is probably OK. It's my brain that doesn't work."

Quinn gave him a kiss. "I knew that! Your brain doesn't work good, but your heart does!"


	16. Chapter 16

**Part 16**

Zander came out of his class at PCU, and went to his car so he could go back to Alexis' office.

When he was walking through the parking lot, he saw Emily was there, about to get into a car.

He thought he would walk past her without saying more than hello. 

"Zander," she said, "what are you doing here?"

"Coming from a class," he said, "the usual reason for being here."

"You're a student here?"

"Yeah."

"I have to look into transferring here."

"Oh."

"You don't have to be so unfriendly," she said.

"Oh, you want to be friends now? OK. I do have to go to work, though." He started to walk on.

"Zander, wait," she said.

He stopped, and stood looking at her in an attitude that told her to get it over with.

"Zander, I was coming to see you when I had that accident," she said, stopping in front of him, "and I'm afraid Sean may try to talk to you about it."

"I already talked to your shyster lawyer."

"Gia and another girl were going on about your mother, and your family, and I only wanted to ask you about who they were and why you never wanted to tell me about them." she said.

"Does it really matter? he asked, impatient to get it over with. "You wouldn't want to know them."

"Now your father owns part of ELQ! And before, he was a person you didn't even want to talk about!"

Zander was stunned for a minute. He remembered a little of his conversations with Alexis, and her showing him the incorporation work she was doing for Sergei, but none of it had translated into Sergei buying any part of ELQ. "I don't know anything about it," he said, finally.

"Grandfather thinks you put him up to it."

"I don't care what your grandfather thinks, Emily! And I don't put _him_ up to things!"

"I don't see why you can't tell me about them now, they're here, so there's no big secret any more, is there?"

"No, not after Alexis and Quinn had to find them and make me deal with them. You weren't all that interested then, so why now?"

"I wasn't there! So why do you give Quinn all this credit, for caring, when it was only doing her job for her?"

"She didn't have to do as much as she did to help Alexis find them. But so what? You were never interested in them before, so I'm not wasting my time to explain them now! Find out yourself. Maybe Sergei will take over your company."

"If you had told me - I would have been there and I would have helped Alexis find them! Quinn wouldn't have had to do anything. You wouldn't even have another thought for her now, she'd just be a nurse who once took care of you!"

"No, you don't know any of that. I would have still fallen for Quinn."

"You wouldn't do a thing like that to me if I had been there."

"You're going to blame me for it all anyhow; I may as well be the bad guy. Sure, I would have. Like her boyfriend did to her. She's the one who wouldn't do a thing like that."

"Oh quit making such a saint out of her. Look what she did, telling the cops about my injuries."

"So you're mad that you got caught driving under influence? Big surprise that you blame her, and not yourself," he said sarcastically.

"If she had kept her mouth shut, no one would have to bother with it!"

"Yes you would! All the medical people saw your injuries."

"They didn't make anything of it. Only she is jealous."

"I doubt it. She probably only thought of protecting the public from drunk drivers."

"That's ridiculous, Zander! She's afraid you still love me!"

"You're the one who tells me she's not serious about me," Zander retorted. "and if that were true, she wouldn't care about that, then, would she?"

Emily considered this argument for a moment. It was a pretty good one. "She might not want things to change, anyway – she wants to hold onto her plaything. And she wouldn't be afraid of that without good reason."

"I don't know who you think you are, Emily, to tell me how Quinn feels about me. Do you realize how outlandish that is? I see her all the time. I know her better than you. Why should I believe your version of her feelings over hers?"

"Because people don't always tell the truth about things like that," Emily said.

"Well, I know that," Zander. "Yeah, I know that real well."

He walked off, determined to leave regardless of what she said and to say nothing more to her.

"You're making yet another mistake, Zander."

"Go back to your shyster boyfriend!" he turned and yelled as he walked.

Joanna and Quinn were at Kelly's after getting off of the midnight shift. 

"Don't let him chase you out of any place you would normally go," Joanna said to Quinn. Quinn had said she didn't want to go to Kelly's, because Sean lived upstairs.

"You're right," Quinn said. "He's in this town, and I hope it's big enough for both of us. He'll get used to seeing me around and think it's no big deal and go about with whatever he was doing."

They were drinking coffee, talking about work, when Sean came down the stairs.

"There he is," Joanna said. "Don't move. He'll get a cup of coffee and leave."

Sean got a cup of coffee to go, but as he turned, he saw them. Joanna rolled her eyes at Quinn. "Guess we have not reached stage two yet," she said. "You know, when he gets so used to seeing you he thinks it's not worth stopping?"

Quinn made a face. Sean came up from behind her.

"Hi, ladies, nurses, you look beautiful today!" He even pulled up a chair and sat down.

"We just got off of work. We look tired," Joanna argued.

Sean grinned.

"What do you want, Sean?" Quinn asked, in a bored tone.

"To say hello," he said. "to two gorgeous women."

Quinn rolled her eyes.

"How's it going, Quinn?" he asked. "Did you have a nice birthday?"

"Very nice," she answered. "You remembered."

"Of course!"

"That's pretty good," Joanna commented. "My ex-husband didn't remember my birthday."

"That's why he's your ex-husband, I suspect," Sean said.

"Will you take your flattery and go elsewhere?" Quinn demanded.

"I'm on my way out to work," he answered. "But I've got a couple of minutes."

"Lucky us," Quinn said, dryly. She took a sip of coffee.

"Your Dad and Joe look the same," he said. "When I saw them down at the track, they were as chipper as ever."

"It hasn't been that long, what, how old did you expect them to be?"

"Well, your brothers are different. Grown a lot."

"That will happen at that age."

"Well, I'll see you around," he said, "Call me if you want to go out and talk over old times. See you, Joanna."

Quinn watched him go out. "Can you believe his nerve?" she asked Joanna.

"The nerve of the man appears to be boundless," Joanna answered. "I think he intends to win you over with niceness. Is that what he did whenever you'd have an argument?"

Quinn thought for a little while. "He did have a tendency to ignore any conflict and try to smooth it over with something else. Come up with an idea, like suggesting going to some restaurant you liked or to do something he knew you thought was fun."

"Sounds like a real schmoozer."

"He's getting worse, too!"


	17. Chapter 17

**Part 17 R **

Stefan Cassidine had invited Oksana and her family out to Windermere, the Cassidines' house on the island. They arranged for it to be so that it could fit into Quinn's schedule, Oksana thinking it would be much easier to have Zander there if Quinn was there, too.

Zander drove the Porsche, with Quinn in front and Oksana and Peter in the back. This made Oksana happy. They parked the car near the launch site to take a boat out to the island.

"What a nice day, Q.," Pete said. "I hope this doesn't involve staying indoors."

"Oh, no," Oksana said. "It won't."

When they got to the island, Quinn met Nicholas and Gia, the couple who had gotten married.

As they walked around looking at the house, which was large, and which Stefan was showing them, Quinn found herself talking to Gia.

"How was your honeymoon?" Quinn asked.

"Beautiful," Gia answered. "We had three weeks in Italy."

"Wow," Quinn said. "Sounds quite heavenly."

"It was," Gia said. "And relaxing. Weddings are wonderful, but stressful."

"All the preparations and such."

"Yeah," Gia agreed. "And such. Like my divorced father and mother in the same room, with my father's new wife. Having Emily for a bridesmaid, and wondering if she was going to do something to make the wedding notorious."

"Like the party you had, where she had the accident leaving it. I took care of her in ICU and I remember you two coming in, and the old grandfather yelling at you."

"That family spoils her."

"But you must be friends, if she was in your wedding."

"She and Nicholas are pretty good friends, I guess, from way back. Something I did for him."

Quinn smiled. "That happens in weddings."

"Then she brought that lawyer as her date. He's already been over to the house to talk to us about her accident. Lovely coming home present."

"Sean. I knew him in Kentucky myself.'

"Did you? Isn't that where she is going to college now?"

"She was, and it's where she met Sean. But Zander saw her in the PCU parking lot the other day and she said she was going to go to PCU."

"Oh, great."

"Yeah, I'm _really_ looking forward to that."

Gia smiled. "I'm lucky, because I graduated. You don't worry about Zander and her, do you?"

"No. He's real loyal. Like he was to her when I first met him. Have you talked to Sean about that accident yet?"

"Yes. We didn't really have much to say, Nicholas and I. I can't say what she was drinking or when. I didn't notice her leaving."

"She claims she wasn't driving, or, at least, her brother claims he was."

"Which brother?"

"AJ."

"Well, it's no surprise, those people will do anything for her, including break the law."

"So Zander says."

"Zander's doing a lot better now. Even in school. You must have a good influence."

"It's not me that much, but having his family here, I think."

"I remember when we did everything we could to get rid of Zander, I mean, Nicholas was so into that. But now he's talking to him," she gestured up ahead, where Nicholas and Zander appeared to be having a conversation.

"I'm glad you didn't get rid of him," Quinn said.

Joanna invited AJ over for dinner, the weekend the kids were with Charlie. 

"How do you like Sean?" she asked him.

"Sean? He's OK. Nice guy. Always has something bright to say."

"Yeah, he's a model of positive thinking."

"I like having him around. I get all this negativity from my grandfather and my cousin. So even if I know Sean is probably schmoozing a bit, you know, trying to get everybody on his side, it's nice. Better than hearing criticism."

Joanna said, "That must be a drag. You know, you could move out of there."

"I think about it every day!" AJ laughed. "And I have for years. I don't have the guts to put up with the trouble they would make, I guess. Or I'm too beat at the end of a day to do it. Sometimes I'd like to get a job independent of them, but then I'm not sure how and I'm not sure I can - like, who wants to hire me besides them?"

"Maybe they want you to think that."

"You're probably right. In fact, you are right. And you do OK when you are young in that family, but I really have to think about Michael getting older. It's like you hit a certain age and if you aren't a prodigy, you can become a family goat. Or black sheep or whatever the psychiatric term is. I bet a psychiatrist could have a field day studying my family."

"No doubt. But do you think Sean really cares about Emily?"

"Not really. I mean, not any more than I think he cares about anything. What am I trying to say? He acts like a friend of mine. But deep down, I'm not sure he really is. But since he's nice and says compliments, as I said, that's seductive to somebody who doesn't hear many of those. So it could be the same with Emily, on a different type of relationship. But the same effect."

"He stopped and talked to Quinn and I the other day, and I get more and more of a feeling he is trying to make some headway with her. I don't know, it's only my suspicion, but I think he could be playing Emily."

"She's not real bright when it comes to things like that. She's not doing well in school again, either! She was class valedictorian the same year she spent so much time with Zander, but her freshman year was an unmitigated academic disaster."

"Maybe she does better at home."

"Well, they want her to go to PCU, which is where she always did want to go, but my parents wouldn't go for it when they thought she was such an academic star. And that year in Kentucky doesn't seem to have done her personally much good, either."

"She always wanted to go to PCU, even when she was an academic star?"

AJ laughed. "Oh, she didn't care about that. It was to be near Zander, of course."

"Well, your parents must be happy. They have it no worse than they would have, and instead of Zander they have Sean, who they must prefer."

"Yeah. Zander would be nice and respectful to them until they crossed a certain line. But they crossed the line due to Zander's actions. Sean is too smart and calculating to do those things, so he can afford to be respectful all the time, and even if he did do those things, I kind of think Sean is able to play respectful anyway."

"Playing - that's the word. Maybe he should have been an actor."

"He's the opposite of Zander, maybe that's what Emily likes. Zander doesn't have the ability to hide anything. If you tick him off, you can tell immediately."

"I think Quinn would rather have that."

"You know, I never could tell what women seem to like about him. Maybe you are onto something there. Women don't like being lied to."

"No."

"Not that Zander should get any credit, because we don't know what he would do if he were capable of hiding his feelings, or telling a lie."

"Good genetic quality then," Joanna smiled.

"Yeah, I guess."

Later they sat on the couch and listened to music. AJ put his arm around her, and Joanna liked this but felt a little nervous. Like I'm in high school, she thought. Silly.

"Where is Michael?" she asked.

"Home. Now there's an advantage of living there. No babysitters needed."

"There's always someone home?"

"Yeah, the cook or the butler at least! Then there's Letitia, but she has weekends off. But I have to be sure somebody knows I'm gone."

"Somebody has to be in charge of Michael, so it's not only servants and none of them know he's there."

"Yeah. The servants are crazy about Michael, though, so I think they always know he's there. I left him with Jason tonight."

"Jason's not out?"

"No. At least, he wasn't! Now you got me thinking I should call there to be sure that somebody is there or that Reginald or the cook knows! I put him to bed, and if Jason left, he would tell somebody. I mean, they always know who is there and who isn't, but - "

"Go ahead and call them!"

He smiled, and she melted a little, thinking how handsome he was. Like I'm a swooning high school girl, she thought. I really have to get a grip.

He called on his cell phone and talked to someone for a minute. "Oh, she is?" she heard him saying. "Great. Could you tell her to call my cell phone if anything happens? Thank you very much. OK. Bye."

He looked at Joanna. "Emily is there, and Sean! Isn't that the best luck?"

"I'm not sure. Yes, I suppose it is!"

He put his arm back around her and then his other arm, and then kissed her. She put her arms around him and kissed him back. They made out there like high school kids for awhile, and Joanna started feeling more relaxed, thinking it was fun. His hands went up from her knees to her thighs, then up so high she grabbed his hand away, laughing, and then not resisting when he just put it back and went higher.

She looked at him; he looked back at her with a look of surrender that was too appealing for resistance. She got up and took his hand and led him back to the bedroom. Before she knew it she was naked and then he was too, and then they were lying on the bed and he was over her, then inside her and then he pulled her up to face him and she put her arms around his neck and was lost to all common sense.


	18. Chapter 18

**Part 18 **

"I don't understand it," Joanna said to Quinn, sitting in Luke's Bar with Quinn after a swing shift. "Glen is a nice guy, I went out with him several times. He would never tell a lie or get messed up with some woman who goes around shooting people. Hell, even Charlie wouldn't do that."

"You can't help who you're attracted to," Quinn said. "It doesn't work if you make this list and assign points for certain traits and decide to be attracted to the one with the most points."

"You don't suppose I'm so idiotic I'm falling for mere looks?" Joanna asked.

"No, I don't suppose you are idiotic," Quinn said affectionately.

"I know he lies, for example, I feel certain he is lying about driving Miss Emily."

Quinn smiled. "Well, you know, it is a lie that's to his disadvantage. I mean, I don't think it's a good idea that he do it or approve of it or anything like that. But it isn't a selfish lie."

"I guess you're right. I don't know why they protect that brat so much. There's Lucky, too. He takes her side regardless. She could murder somebody and they'd all be defending her."

"There's Lucky's half-brother, too, Nicholas. Gia had Emily for a bridesmaid. I was talking to Gia when we visited that island, and from her I gathered that she wasn't so fond of Little Miss, but felt like she had to choose her as a bridesmaid because Nicholas considers her such a friend."

"Those two might not lie to the authorities for her, but they are similar, I guess."

"As for AJ, you know he's not lying to _you_. In fact, he might lie to the authorities on your behalf, if he thought it necessary."

"I don't know that I like that."

"No, but you could like _him_ for it. I'm just saying. These things don't work the sensible way, or I'd be married to Paul Whitman right now."

"Yeah, you know what I mean exactly, don't you, Quinn? You know you could be dating somebody without a criminal record, just for starters."

"Yeah, the criminal record is interesting."

"That's it! It's just interesting, because he is. You don't find it disqualifying if there are other factors. But you would have if just asked about it, out of the blue. Like if you had never met Zander and I had asked you would you ever date someone who had ever broken the law, you'd have said no."

"Yeah, and you'd have said no dating someone who lied to get little sister out of paying for her mistakes."

"But that's not a good thing. She will grow up thinking she's entitled to do anything. So will his son."

"He might think twice about it when it's his son. He might come under your good influence, too," Quinn added, grinning.

"Oh no. It does not work to reform them. Or try to."

"No, but you can always state your opinion and it might have some weight."

"Yeah. But what do I do now? I sound like I'm in high school. I'm not sure how to act when AJ pops up in ICU next."

"Maybe it was always to run into you!"

"I never felt singled out."

"Well, maybe he tried to hide that and succeeded. You're at work there, busy. If that's not the explanation, you might be able to find out for us!"

Joanna laughed. "I may never find out the truth!"

"It could be fun trying!"

"And aggravating. I am sure grateful to have a friend like you, Quinn. Somebody you can tell anything to."

"Me too. I wish Zander had someone like that."

"You don't think he does? His brother loves him."

"Yeah. I think his brother, when he gets older, and the age difference shrinks - he could be that. Probably will. Sometimes I think Alexis might be or that Rosa might be - he can talk to them, about anything, but I wonder if he realizes it. And Joe I think he can talk too, but I'm sure Zander would be careful what he said, about me."

"There's the shrink."

"Oh sure, but that's not the same. It's that his parents aren't like mine. It's not the same for him."

"Would you mind if it was a girl? Like Rosa's daughter, or Gia or somebody."

"I guess not. So long as it was purely Platonic. _Purely_ platonic."

"That sounds mighty possessive!"

"But of course! I told you - you can't pick the one you love with a list!"

"I hope you're right that it just all works out."

Nicholas went to Oksana's house with a sweater she had left on the island. "I should have left it for my uncle, because I'm sure he'd rather have the excuse to come over," Nicholas said to Peter, who had let him in. "But I was dying to take up Zander on his offer to let me see that car."

Peter laughed and called Zander up at the gate house.

Zander came back and then went out in the Porsche, with Nicholas driving.

"This is a great ride," Nicholas said. He drove out on Lake Road, since it was relatively traffic-free.

"There's the accident site," Nicholas said.

"This is my car," Zander said. "No berating me about Emily."

"OK," Nicholas said. "Fair enough rule. I guess you take the position she was driving. Gia does too."

"Of course she was," Zander said. "And so, why shouldn't she get the legal penalty? You were all for me getting whatever penalties I deserved."

"Well, see, you didn't get enough," Nicholas said. "Because Emily was so helpful to you. So why not give her a break now?"

"Now, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other."

"But your girlfriend caught her."

"Quinn was stuck on the case, it could have been any nurse."

"Yeah. And I guess Quinn can't change her story now."

Zander laughed. "Good fiction! Quinn changing her story to lie to protect Emily! That'll happen only in fairy tales."

"Well, I wish she hadn't said anything, or anyone for that matter, because there's no harm done."

"Oh, don't worry about it. Emily has the best law firm on her side, with the best shyster lawyer clerk from another state there is."

"What is that guy's story, anyway? He was out at our house asking us a zillion questions, being really as charming as he could be the whole time. Is he really Emily's boyfriend?"

"No, I think you have another one to protect Emily from. Watch out for him," Zander advised. "He's up to something. I just know it in my bones."

"Thanks!" Nicholas said. "And for the ride."


	19. Chapter 19

**Part 19 **

When Zander and Nicholas got back to Oksana's house, they went into the house through the kitchen. Peter and Tim were there, and Diana, Rosa and Lisa were there, and Lucky Spencer was there. "What a convention," Zander said to Nicholas as they walked in.

"Well, so tell us, did you kiss her good night?" Diana was asking Tim.

"I got too nervous," Tim answered.

Diana looked heavenward. Lisa laughed. "Maybe you didn't feel right about it just then," Lisa said. "That's OK."

"Better luck next time," Peter said, with a grin.

"Should I try asking her out again?"

"Do you want to?" Lisa asked. "Do you want to spend another evening with her? That's the question."

"I don't know," Tim admitted. "I was too nervous."

"Then don't," Zander put in. "If you spent all that time and never hit if off so you could talk to her without feeling nervous, maybe you just aren't companionable, or compatible, or whatever the word is."

"Quinn says ask her again because I already know her, so I'll be less nervous the second time, so I'll get a better idea."

"Oh, wow, a disagreement," Peter said, mischievously. "have you ever had one before?"

"No," Zander said. "And I never thought the first one might be about Tim's love life."

"Tim's love life is a major issue," Pete said. "Subject to discussion by all."

"I have so many advisors," Tim said. "That I don't know what to do."

Everyone laughed. Zander felt strange, like he was connected, somehow, and belonged. It felt good, but odd.

Elizabeth was arranging her paints, in her studio.

"He's still so spiteful and mean," Emily said. "So like Sean says, he would be nice if he was completely over me and happy with her."

"I don't know," Elizabeth said. "You did break up with him. People get funny over that. No one ever rejected you, so far, so you might not appreciate how that might feel."

"No one ever dumped you."

"Lucky did, a couple of times. It hurts a lot. You did it more than once, too. He's never dumped you; you dumped him."

"I did that for his own good! Both times!"

"How, the second time?"

"What second time?"

"How was it for his own good when you were at the University and wrote the letter?"

"Oh, I forgot to count that one. But when my grandfather made the charges against him, for example."

"He didn't know you were doing that, so it hurt. That's what you're not getting. It hurt."

"But I explained it later, when we got back together!"

"It still hurt."

"Still, why does it bother him if he is so nuts about her?"

"I don't know, but you must want him back, or you wouldn't care about all this."

"I don't think so."

"You regret breaking up with him?"

"At first, but he is so mean about it, even after I explained that I didn't know what was going on!"

"I'd say just avoid him until enough time passes that he can be civil to you."

"I was only advising him for his own good, about the tattle-tale nurse."

"Well, he knows what your advice is. It's up to him to decide what to do with it."

"How can you ignore that? What if Paul did that to you?"

"Turned Lucky in somehow?"

"Without telling you."

"But she, Quinn, might have."

"No, Zander wouldn't agree to that."

"OK. If Paul knew something Lucky did wrong and turned him in somehow without telling me. That's the equivalent? I think. This is confusing."

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess, if Paul thought Lucky was guilty, I would leave that to Paul to decide. I mean, the police can sort it out."

"The police don't try to sort it out! They try to prove you're guilty!"

"Aren't you innocent until proven guilty? You don't have to start law school to know that! You're still innocent until proven guilty. Quinn can't convict you on her own."

"She can get me to where I have to go to lawyers and get booked down at the police station on her own."

"They did all that on her word alone? I don't know. They talked to a lot of people."

"None of which they would have done without her. Now I've got this whole trial to go through."

"Well, there's no way to know that for sure. But if you were driving, why don't you just admit it, pay the fine and do the community service, and skip the trial?"

"My family wants me to go through the trial."

"Tell your family to take a hike."

"They know what's best for me. They always have."

"You didn't agree with that back when you were telling me you were in love with Zander and they didn't like it."

"That was long ago, I guess."

"So they were right. Now you've got to avoid him. And his girlfriend. And his mother. And his father."

"We can't do that, now."

"Why?"

"He owns Sonny's part of our company."

"He does? That's amazing."

"Yeah. A lot of fun that'll prove to be. Grandfather wants to find a way to get rid of him."

"Well, good luck."

"Thanks for listening, Elizabeth. Well, I have to go."

Elizabeth saw her out the door. "You're welcome," she said, to the door.

"I wish she didn't have to be in the wedding," Elizabeth told Paul, when he dropped by the studio. "But, she thinks she's my best friend. I never thought I'd be so thankful for Sarah. Having a sister means I can make her the maid of honor over my alleged best friend."

"You really don't have to have her, if you don't want to ask her," Paul said.

"It'll bring on a lot of comment," Elizabeth said. "Do you want to put up with that? Or put up with me complaining about that? I guess it's just easier to ask her. Of course that means you are putting up with my complaining about that."

"Complain about whatever you want," Paul said, putting his arms around her. "Weddings are like that. I have it on good authority from Patti, Mom and the rest of the family."

"Still, you don't seem to have these problems," Elizabeth said, putting her arms around his neck. "Some buddies from high school, college, and med school and your brother-in-law and you're done."

"Men are easier going about weddings," he grinned. "Hopefully that's the extent of my sexist opinions," he added, giving her a kiss.

"OK, male chauvinist," Elizabeth laughed. "I just hope Emily doesn't get on your nerves."

Sean liked the music at Luke's Bar, so he hung out there every once in awhile. Luke overlooked his bringing Emily in, even though she was under age. Emily was good friends with his son Lucky. Sean and Emily hung out there with Lucky and Lucky's girlfriend Lisa a couple of times.

"They did have a sort of disagreement," Lucky was saying, "though they don't realize it yet." He grinned at Lisa.

"What about?" Sean asked.

"It's too trivial to even remember," Lisa said. "They each gave Tim, Quinn's brother, different advice about his date. Tim told us in the kitchen over the house what Quinn's was, after Zander gave his right there."

"That kitchen is like Congress," Lucky grinned. "You can go there any time, and there will be somebody there willing to give their opinion on whatever you may have issues about."

Lisa laughed. "Yeah, that describes it pretty well. Aunt Rosa started giving the advice, but now she just listens most of the time."

"She's the president pro tempore," Lucky said.

"She keeps the proceedings in order," Sean suggested.

"Tell me this, Lucky," Emily said. "If you run into Elizabeth, how do you treat her?"

"With great annoyance," Lucky said. "I don't feel so hurt any more. But I find her irritating, and I know it isn't her fault. I just wish she would wipe that smirk off her face. She thinks she's so cool, because she's marrying a doctor. So I find that annoying, what can I say? I should be a bigger man, and congratulate her. I do that, but I can't stop myself from making fun of this a little. Like she's going to be Mrs. Dr. Witless, and how good a name that is for her."

"You said that to her?" Sean grinned.

"Once," Lucky said. "I couldn't resist. Because of her constant smirking."

"Zander doesn't make fun of me, but he's mean. He called Sean a shyster lawyer, but it's not funny, like your Dr. Witless comments."

"Elizabeth probably does _not_ appreciate the humor," Sean said. "But Zander didn't want to break up with you at first, see, so it's natural for him to want to rub it in your face, see I found somebody who does love me. We all do that."

"We do?" Emily asked.

"Yeah. Don't I like that little nurse to see I have a tall, beautiful model now? Of course I do."

"But he likes you for yourself," Lucky said. "Emily, he's just saying it's not a bad side effect that his ex-girlfriend gets to see how much better he can do."

"That's it, exactly," Sean said, grateful to Lucky for saving him before he knew he needed saving.

"One's new love is always better than one's former flame," said Lisa.

"That one should be written up on a plaque for the Halls of Congress!" Lucky laughed.

"I'll have Aunt Rosa see to it," Lisa said, laughing too.

"Great wisdom that Elizabeth could never come up with," Sean added, joining in.

Emily looked at all of them as if they were crazy.


	20. Chapter 20

**Part 20 PG-13**

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Quinn looked up from lunch in the hospital cafeteria to see Paul standing there with a tray in his hand.

"Yes," she said.

He sat down anyway. "I was wondering if you could consider coming to the wedding," he said. "You and Smith could come, you know, he's a friend of Elizabeth, more or less."

"Sure," she said. "I'll come to the wedding with Smith."

"Good!" he said. "Gee, I didn't think it would be that easy," he said. "What gives?"

"Sean is here, and you're less irritating than he is."

"Oh, yeah, dating Smith's ex-girlfriend, too, huh? Well, that should keep them busy and out of your hair."

"Somehow it doesn't," she said.

"Is it the DUI case?"

"Yeah. I'm beginning to wish I'd never said anything. But then that's the way she wants it, I guess. Though I guess you're on her side, Elizabeth being her best friend and all."

"You know how Elizabeth feels about that! And for the DUI, if she did it, she did it. Don't be silly, Quinn! This is not like you. Sean must be very irritating indeed."

"I'll call you if I need therapy," she said, getting up.

"Try to get more sleep," Paul advised. "It's tough to do with shift work, I know."

A little tired, Quinn walked down by the docks after work, thinking she would stop and pick up something for dinner.

"Oh great," she thought, seeing Emily there, with a drink from Kelly's in a cup. She had taken the lid off and laid it on the railing.

The wind kicked up a breeze and blew the lid away.

"Whoops," Emily said, seeing Quinn and stooping down to pick up the plastic lid. "Wouldn't want to get caught littering in front of a tattle-tale witness."

"You would expect to be able to get away with it," Quinn retorted. "You've got some sort of right to have the witnesses just keep it to themselves, don't you?"

"Most nurses take care of their patients rather than looking at them for evidence."

"Taking care of them involves noticing everything about them, including bruises in the outline of a steering wheel."

"But you didn't go running to the doctor with that news. You went running to the cops."

"I wouldn't put it that way."

"Of course not. Well, you didn't need to go to all that trouble to try keeping me away from Zander. I'll do that myself. I could have told you that."

"I'm not worried about that," Quinn said. She realized it would be better to leave, and started walking on.

"But of course you are," Emily said. Quinn froze. She knew she should leave and that she was never going to prove anything by arguing with Emily. She could tell she was getting angry, if she wasn't already. She took a deep breath to steady herself. "You know for sure you wouldn't have him to play around with if I hadn't broke up with him," Emily went on, "and you know I wouldn't have if I had known the truth."

"Well," Quinn said, through her teeth, "you wouldn't have Sean to play around with if I were married to him."

"You wouldn't be. You can't commit to anybody. There's plenty of evidence for that."

"I don't know why Sean puts up with you. He's a grown man. Have you ever wondered?"

"He's not here for you!"

"He's not here for you either!" Quinn retorted, losing her temper. "I bet you aren't even sleeping with him, either. Too bad for you, because he's not half bad, and - "

"Shut up! How would you know! What do you mean, either, if Zander denies making love to me, he's lying!"

"He doesn't deny it, but told me enough for me to know you're - well there's a clinical word for it - but Sean's not going to do much for you either if someone that passionate can't."

"He's a liar!"

"Oh, you didn't get up with this hot-blooded passionate guy all over you to answer your cell phone!"

"My grandfather was hurt!"

"He was not. And then you sleep with him once and then hung out with him a whole summer without ever being with him again? Well, if he's not going to do it for you, nobody can, so - "

"There was too much going on! I had to run from a mobster! He did! It was his fault too, with all the crime he had himself involved in."

"He could be alone in his room with you without ravishing you. Trust me, he can't do that for anybody else, and certainly not me! You're the only one frigid enough to manage that!"

"Shut up!" Emily struggled not to cry. She flung her drink at Quinn. The iced tea and the ice splashed all over her. Then Emily ran off. 

Quinn stared after her. She felt a little cooler, as if the iced tea had literally cooled her temper as well. But she also felt guilty. She'd been pretty hard on the young girl. Who'd been through so much, and who knew but that Sean was playing with her emotions.

Then she remembered. "That's how she manipulates everyone, somehow," she thought. She gets you feeling guilty. Somehow she contrives to become your victim."

Quinn felt angry and tired, but just stood there for a minute. "I really lost it," she thought. "Better tell Zander about this before she does," and she took her cell phone out. Then, to her greatest possible annoyance, she heard a voice behind her, saying "Hi, Quinn! How's the little nurse?"

It was Sean.

"Were you listening?"

"Listening to what? No."

"How long have you been here?"

"One second. How come you're all wet?"

"What do you see in that little brat? What did Zander see in her?"

"Emily annoyed you, did she?"

"Quite."

"Well, not to worry. You're cute when you're mad."

"I hate it when you say that. And by the way, I hate the little nurse remark."

Suddenly, he had both arms around her and leaned down and was kissing her. She was absolutely pinned to him and couldn't do anything. Her arms were crushed in front of her against his chest and her head was practically immobile. All she could do was try to yell.

When he finally released her she stepped back. Then she went at him and pounded his chests with both of her fists in a fit of fury. "Don't ever touch me again!" she yelled.

"Whoah!" he laughed, and his attitude infuriated her further. He picked her up, crushing her arms so they were immobilized and useless again. He carried her to the end of the dock.

"Shall I drop you in?" he laughed. "Maybe that'll cool the Irish temper better than a little ice water, or whatever that is."

His calm amusement was more infuriating.

"Let me go before I kill you," she yelled.

He let go, then.

"I like 'em with spirit," he said.

"Then you're not really interested in her, then," Quinn retorted. "You should leave her alone."

"So concerned about Emily's well being, are you?"

"Yeah, well it seems to be everyone's concern, as she's not into looking out for it herself." Quinn walked off, even running when she thought he wasn't looking.

Sean looked after her, smiling to himself.

In a moment, he heard footsteps. He saw Zander Smith passing down onto the dock.

"Hey, Smith, I see you're on your way back from a class."

"Yeah," Zander said, rudely, passing him.

"Run faster and you might catch up with Quinn," Sean said. "I just had a nice little conversation with her."

"Sure she loved that," Zander said, walking on.

"Got her to kiss me, too," Sean said.

"Oh, shut up, you did not."

"You don't believe me? Now why would I lie about that?"

"I don't know why you do anything you do. But you're a born liar, that's for sure."

"Well, I kissed her. You don't think she'd ever kiss me back? Maybe it was for old time's sake."

"Leave her alone," Zander said, trying to back away.

"Why? Afraid I'll succeed?"

"You had four years before and you didn't!"

"I know, but now she knows what she's missing."

"I doubt that."

"Well, she did kiss me back, I'll tell you that much."

Zander dropped his back pack, unthinking, and pushed Sean. "Hey, watch out," Sean said, "I'm bigger than you, you know. Though maybe we should ask Quinn who's really bigger."

His nonchalant tone was so annoying that Zander couldn't think. He took a swing at Sean and his flying fist landed right in Sean's jaw.

"Ow! Wait a minute! There's no reason to go beyond any verbal altercation!"

"You know you're asking for more than that!" Zander yelled, taking another punch. Then he realized Sean was not punching back. He stopped, realized what he was doing, and the implications. Legal implications floated through his mind. He saw the personification of evil in front of him, deliberately taunting him but not fighting back himself. And a liar.

Zander grabbed his backpack. "You're not worth it," he declared as calmly as he could. He walked off.

Sean sat rubbing his jaw for a minute, looking after Zander, a smile spreading slowly over his face.


	21. Chapter 21

**Part 21**

"Shyster," Zander muttered to himself as he walked along. He had not gotten much further when his phone rang. He looked at it. Since it was Quinn, he answered it.

"I had a cat-fight with Little Emily," she said. "I want to tell you what I did before she does."

"I wouldn't listen to her anyway, Quinn," he replied. "And you're not alone. I had a battle with the Shyster."

"You did? I wonder if it was before or after I saw him."

"It was within the last minute."

"After, must have been."

"I won, I think. Did you?"

There was silence for a moment, then she laughed. "Yes, I bulldozed over her. You may feel sorry for her after hearing this."

"I already feel sorry for her. Where are you?"

"Meet me at my place. I picked up some hamburgers from Kelly's."

Quinn went into her apartment and played her messages. "Quinn, this is Sean," she heard.

"How did he get my number?" she yelled to nobody in particular. She heard knocking, so she turned the answering machine off. "Better not be you, Sean!" she said to herself. She opened the door, ready to lecture, but it was Zander.

"Hi! Come in."

He came in and put his backpack down. "You look tired," he smiled, and went over and massaged her neck.

"That feels perfect," she said. "Relaxing."

"Here, sit down. Were the patients demanding today?" he asked, massaging her neck some more.

"Yes. In fact they were. It always happens in bunches. And I learned that both you and I will be invited to the Witless Wedding."

"I wouldn't want to miss that."

She giggled. "You make me laugh," she said. "On the way to Kelly's I met Little Emily. She called me a tattle-tale and I told her she was frigid."

She looked back at him. He was still working on her shoulders, then moved to her upper back. "You would know. You're the nurse."

"Well, you would know a little better, I think! But I just went on what I know."

"You made your diagnosis on what you know."

"Yes," she giggled. "And that was it. You may disagree?"

He shrugged. "I'm no medical expert."

"She attacked me with a deadly weapon - a glass of iced tea, or coke, or something like that. Then she ran."

"Were you injured?"

She giggled again. "No!" she hit at him playfully. "It cooled me off a little."

"I'm going to keep a glass of ice water around," he said. "I'll be prepared for the Irish temper."

"My Irish was really up by the time Sean came along, and that wasn't two minutes later."

"This is when he kissed you?"

She whirled around. "How did you know?"

"He told me. That was when I hit him. No, wait. I didn't hit him until he told me we should ask you which one of us was bigger. He declared himself bigger on height." Zander couldn't go on, because he started to laugh.

"He is so irritating!" Quinn exclaimed. But she ended up laughing.

"Which one of us is?" Zander asked. "No, don't answer that. I don't want to know. But he definitely, most definitely, has the agenda to get you back. He told me he would, or said I was afraid he would succeed. He says you were kissing him madly already."

"You don't believe him."

"Of course not."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"OK, so long as you don't let him get to you."

"I did hit him. He got to me. I hit him, and he wasn't hitting back. I think he could file charges, because I assaulted him. He was rubbing his jaw."

"Do you think he was faking, or that you really hurt him?"

"Faking. I dunno. Not for sure. He could easily say I hurt him."

"He tested you. Now he knows how to get you to lose it."

"Naturally, if he's going to go around kissing you, he knows that. No real test." He pulled her close, and she laid her head on his shoulder.

"How was the test for your class at PCU?"

"I think I did all right. It's a good thing Amanda is still helping me. I really do have a deficit."

"Don't worry," she said, stroking his arm. "You'll do college all right. But don't get any more criminal record. In case you want to be a teacher, or something like that."

"That's a good thought! I better watch out."

"See that's why Sean did that. He's a lawyer. He could have extra problems, not just a criminal charge. You know, the Bar Disciplinary Board."

"Well, I'll be. What a shyster. That doesn't stop him from provoking someone else. I'm glad you mentioned that, Quinn! What a thought. I never had anything to go for before. I wonder if I'm already wrecked. I've already got a record."

"Maybe not."

"I gotta buy ear plugs in case I run into him again," Zander said. "I have this feeling I'm going to want to deck him a lot."

She giggled. "I wish Little Emily would keep him at home, but frigid as she is, I don't have much hope! Hey, are you hungry, Sandy? Do you want those hamburgers?"

"Later," he said, and leaned over to kiss her.

"Sounds like Offensive Touching, at most," Alexis said. "Even if you don't hurt someone, you can't touch them without their permission. It's only a misdemeanor, though. If it's any comfort, the iced tea throwing was an offensive touching, too. The kiss sounds like even more, maybe that could be cast as a sexual assault. I'm not sure."

"It was very offensive," Quinn said, starting to giggle.

"I'm sure!" Alexis laughed. "Sounds like a fine day out on the docks. I wonder if the moon was full."

"If it wasn't, it should have been," Zander said. "And we can't let him stop us from coming to Kelly's in the morning like this. But it's dangerous. He could come down any minute. I'm glad you're here, Alexis."

"Maybe there's a way to get him to be the one to lose it," Alexis said.

"No, he remains perfectly calm. That's his MO," Zander replied.

"Tell him I said he was the smaller," Quinn suggested.

All three of them burst into laughter.

"Well, I better go to the hospital," Quinn said, getting up.

She kissed Zander. Alexis and Zander said goodbye to her as she walked out.

"She's wonderful," Alexis said.

"Yes," Zander replied. "I'd give a lot to hear her tell Emily off. I tried telling her off myself, but I'm not as good. What is Dad doing to the Quartermaines' Company?"

"He bought out a minority shareholder. Sonny. If anything, it's an improvement for them."

"Well, they don't see it that way."

"They may, in time. Right now Edward Quartermaine doesn't like it, because of some other things Sergei did. He'll get over it."

"Does that old guy ever get over anything?"

"Eventually. How's school?"

"Good. I have an advantage over the rest of the students because I have my own tutor."

"She only helps you study."

"Yeah, I don't know if I could concentrate without her."

Joanna was laughing as Quinn related the story.

"What did Sean say on your answering machine?"

"I never listened!"

"Call it on break and listen."

Quinn did. "Quinn, this is Sean," it said. "I don't know what you see in Smith, but you ought to know he's capable of violence. He hit me a couple of times. I'm not injured though. Call me and we can go out and talk over the old days."

"He's capable of violence!" Quinn exclaimed to Joanna. "So am I, when it comes to Sean Monroe! Sean better get used to it if he's going to go around provoking people like that!"

"I'll say," Joanna smiled. "Let's go for lunch."

They were sitting in the cafeteria when AJ came along. He sat down with them.

"You might not want to sit here," Joanna advised. "This is the Sean haters club."

"What did he do now?" AJ asked. "Another round of questioning on the case?"

"He got into a fight with Quinn and a little later he got into a fight with Zander."

"I thought lawyers were supposed to help settle disputes, not be in the middle of them," AJ said.

"This is personal," Quinn said. "And you may as well tell your sister, she has no good deal there. The way he behaves to me is not consistent with any loyalty to her."

"Poor Emily," AJ said. "Quinn has both guys and Emily has none."

"She can have Sean. I wish she'd do a better job of - keeping him in line," Quinn replied.

"I'll tell her," AJ said, with a grin. "Joanna, do you want to take all the kids to the park this evening?"

"Well, I have to - OK," Joanna said.

"You can try to keep me in line," he said. "Maybe you learned from Quinn. She's good at that. Look how little trouble Zander has gotten into, compared to what he used to."

"It's your sister that needs to learn," Joanna observed.

"She _is_ the weakest link," Quinn agreed.


	22. Chapter 22

**Part 22**

Joanna and AJ sat on a park bench, watching the kids playing.

"You're quiet," she said.

"I'm thinking about my testimony; it's making me nervous."

"Don't go through with it, AJ!"

"I wonder what would happen if I went to the cops and changed my story."

"Don't tell them, tell the lawyer."

"Dara Jenson?"

"No, tell that guy at Baldwin & Baldwin. Maybe he can try to make a deal for her."

"Emily's defense lawyer! Hey, that's not a bad idea, Joanna."

"You've got to live with yourself," she said. "And it'll be hard to go into a courtroom and lie."

"Would you go with me? To Baldwin, I mean. At least, as far as the waiting room."

"Is it that stressful?"

"Sort of. I need someone to nag me and keep me from thinking of my family's opinions and talking myself out of it."

"Oh thanks!"

"I'm kidding," he said. "But I could use a distractor. They keep you waiting in that room long enough for your brain to start working."

"And that would be terrible! Well, OK. Anything to keep _your_ brain from working."

"Very funny," he said, with a grin.

Quinn was reading from a list of English words Zander had written for her in the Russian alphabet. She thought she agreed with Tim that the different alphabet was kind of fun; like cracking a code.

"OK," she said, "here goes. _Vah. Vash-ee. Vash-eeng-ton." Vashington." _

"Right."

"_Pooort Chahlz_. OK. _Kah-nore. Koo-in._"

"Do you remember that?"

"Oh yeah! Quinn. Let's see. _Een-dee-ahn-ah-pah-leese. Notair_ – Notre Dame. _Fee-la-dahlfeeya. Shon_. Sean? _Leetel Em-eh-lee."_

She broke down laughing.

"You sound like a Russian trying to speak English," he said.

"Like the other students in your class over there?"

"Kind of," he laughed. 

"You were so helpful to them. I know, Mom remembers that from your records."

He smiled a little bit. "She's really helps me a lot," he said. "Even by just saying nice things to me."

"I wonder what if people who say not-nice things think they are doing anybody any good. Other than themselves."

"They always claim they are."

"I don't think I believe them."

"Yeah, I've never felt like any real good ever came of it."

"So you wouldn't do it to other people yourself."

"I hope not! Not intentionally, anyway."

"That's a good quality for a teacher. To be encouraging more than critical."

"I bet your Mom is encouraging and not critical."

"Well, so are you. Look at me, I'm already reading these hieroglyphics."

He laughed, and went over to where she was sitting, hugging her from behind. "These are not hieroglyphics," he teased. "These are the Cyrillic alphabet."

She giggled; his hair tickled her neck. "All I can tell you is they made no sense an hour ago, and now they seem to say something!"

"It's really strange," Zander was telling Kathleen, at the race track, as they waited for the time trials to start. "I almost wish I could just take tests. I'm OK studying with Amanda and then taking a test. But sitting in class almost kills me!"

"That's attention deficit disorder, all right," Kathleen said. "Amanda gears toward you, the class toward people, with, er, let's say, attention surplus disorder."

"But shouldn't I be able to get through it on the same terms as other people do?"

"Well, not necessarily. No. If you learn a thing, you know it. Who cares how you learned it?"

"I guess."

"You're very smart in _your_ way. It's not an inferior way. A brunette can be beautiful, so can a blonde. So can a redhead. Now society can favor blondes, but it's not rational. They really shouldn't call something a disorder when it's only different, but some people just have to categorize everything. It is in the nature of people with attention surplus disorder that they must see it like that, and in the nature of people with attention deficit disorder that they don't mind the other people being different and don't have to label them as disordered. That's why the label flows one way and not the other."

"I appreciate your encouraging me like this, Kathleen. It helps. Sometimes I feel hopeless. Like I wake up in the middle of a class, and the professor is talking about something and I have no idea where he is, because I've been thinking about something he said earlier."

"I've been reading a lot about this," Kathleen said. "And some say that you can focus better than they can. I know that sounds like the opposite. But what you just said bears it out. You can focus better than they can at the same time. You were thinking about something he said, while he went on. He was demanding a shift in your attention, and you don't want to make it. You were concentrating on the subject, but not on him and where he wanted to go."

"That gives me a feeling of being left behind."

"True, yet you can go into more depth than somebody else might. That's why you get behind rather than some sort of slowness."

"Maybe I ought to start driving cars, like Quinn," he smiled. "Out there, there's nothing to distract you and keep you behind."


	23. Chapter 23

**Part 23**

Quinn qualified for the race. Dr. Paul Whitman did not.

"It's just all that excitement, getting engaged," Paul said to Quinn, with a big smile. "I couldn't concentrate. I'll surely beat you next time."

"Don't bet on it," Zander said.

"Well, congratulations, girl racer," said Elizabeth, and she and Paul walked off hand in hand.

Tim was showing Branwyn the car.

"Oh, you won the argument, Quinn," Zander said, looking at them.

"Huh?"

"The argument we had. You don't know about it, but we had a difference of opinion about Tim's date there, and you won."

"Oh, really? I think you have to explain this, Sander."

"It was like this. I told Tim he shouldn't go out with her again, and he told me you said he should. So you win, see?"

"OK," Quinn said, laughing helplessly. "Do we kiss and make up now?"

"Yes, that is exactly what we do now."

They were still kissing when they heard someone clearing a throat. "Oh, hello," Alexis said. Jerry was standing next to her.

"We're here to congratulate the winner," Alexis said.

"Thank you," Quinn said.

"Zander Smith," said a voice. It was Detective Taggart.

"Yeah," Zander answered, still smiling, arms around Quinn.

"I regret to say you are under arrest for assault."

"What! I didn't do anything?"

"Sorry, witness says you did," Taggart said. "I have to ask you to come down to the station."

"I'm coming with you," Alexis said.

"Sean!" Quinn exclaimed, knowledge dawning on her face.

Bernard Bach sat across from Dara Jenson in her office.

"I can make a motion to keep the seat belt issue out," he said. "It's got nothing to do with intoxication. You only want it in to make the defendant look irresponsible. But it has no bearing on whether she was under the influence."

"OK, say the judge rules in your favor on that," Dara answered. "So what? I'll have the officers to observe that AJ was so insistent that he was driving. He told them more than once and without their asking."

"That's nothing next to the evidence they will have to give to the effect that they found her in the passenger seat. And I can argue it was his car."

"Well, the ER tech has her Blood Alcohol Content down cold," Dara countered. "A blood test. None of your usual arguments about the breathalyzer not being properly calibrated."

"Doesn't matter in the least if she wasn't driving. And the ER personnel didn't notice anything unusual."

"They see so many accident victims," Dara waved a hand is a dismissive gesture. "It's typical to have bruising and swelling in the chest area. If there are no broken bones or internal bleeding, then it's a soft tissue injury and doesn't get further treatment in the ER. They go on to the next emergency and let the non-emergency staff deal with the less urgent injuries. But Dr. Jones noted the bruising, and treats auto accident patients by the dozens, and he says your client's are typical of those of drivers who failed to wear seat belts. Which means, come to think of it, you'll never succeed in keeping out the fact she wasn't wearing a seat belt, because it is relevant to this issue."

"She could have gotten those bruises from the dashboard," Bach said. "And the nurse that noticed it, we have her dating my client's ex-boyfriend. Not exactly objective."

"There was no damage to the windshield. Had your client been thrown against the dashboard with enough force to cause those injuries, her head injury would have been much worse. And we would have expected the driver to have sustained injuries far more severe than hers. Yet here we have AJ without a scratch on him. Now all that's objective. Besides, Dr. Jones saw it all, regardless of the nurse's motives."

Dara saw Bach had no comeback, so she went on. "Then a witness heard AJ talk of 'going after her.' You can try to cloud that all you want, but what could be clearer circumstantial evidence? And if enough circumstantial evidence piles up, it starts to work. Also your client telling someone she was going to see Zander Smith. You don't normally say you're going to see someone if someone else is taking you."

"That doesn't mean anything," Bach waved a hand. "You can talk about where you're going without mentioning your method of going there. Would you say you were driving your car over to Zander's Smith's? No. You'd say you were going to see Zander Smith, period. You wouldn't say you were riding the bus or taking a cab. How about if she pleads to reckless driving and pays a fine and does community service?"

"Paying a fine does her no good," Dara replied. "Her family will just pay it for her. Community Service, OK, but not at the hospital, where the family can have it written up even if she does nothing."

"You underestimate the family, but OK," Bach said. "Do we have a deal, then?"


	24. Chapter 24

**Part 24**

Zander was bailed out right away. He and Alexis walked out. He was almost happy. He remembered how long he'd been stuck in the jail before.

"I thought you were staying out of trouble, Smith," Taggart said, in the provoking sort of tone he always used. "But we never go too long without getting to see your face."

"This is nothing," Zander said. "My girlfriend's old boyfriend and he's full of it. He's the complainant, isn't he? Sean Monroe."

Taggart put on his most sarcastic grin. "So the complainant is full of it. What else is new?"

"This complainant is," Alexis said, taking Zander's arm. "He's a lawyer."

Taggart grinned. "I guess I'll have to accept that, then," he said. "Congratulations, Smith."

Ursula Wentworth had been on the bench of the Court of Common Pleas for about three months. After 15 years of practicing law, she had always thought that the judge had it easy, but had learned in these three months that it wasn't as simple as it looked.

Dara Jenson was the prosecutor today. She was always efficient. Ursula called the first ten cases. As usual, about fifty percent of the defendants weren't there. She put them on second call. They disposed of four others by a plea, and the fifth was put off so counsel could talk to the defendant about something.

The eleventh case was that of Miss Emily Quartermaine, who was pleading to reckless driving. There was Bernard Bach, who was from the biggest firm and town and therefore had to put on a show for his client, trying to pretend that she, the judge, deferred to guys like him when they deigned to show up in the courtroom.

"Your honor," he said, with false obsequiousness. "This is a case involving an auto accident. A minor auto accident, in which only Miss Quartermaine was injured."

"Yes," she said, since she had to say something, or he would extned his dramatic pause forever. Since they had reached a plea agreement, he had no reason to argue the case, as in "only Miss Quartermaine was injured."

But of course he must run his mouth to some length, or his client would think he hadn't done anything to earn his fee.

Finally his show was over, and Ursula was able to sentence Miss Quartermaine as agreed, to forty hours of community service, to be served somewhere other than at the hospital. Whatever the reason was for that, it was no worry to Ursula. They had agreed, that wrapped up the case, and that was good enough.

Miss Quartermaine sat down again, and didn't leave right away, which was different. Most defendants hauled out as fast as they could once they were through.

Three more defendants not in yet; three more pleas. The eighteenth case was that of Alexander Kanishchev, aka Zander Smith. Ursula remembered Zander Smith for his past troubles with the law, and sighed to think that now he added to his offenses against society by having a duplicate name.

Alexis Davis represented him as usual. Part of his fame arose out of his being rather cute. The girls who worked in the courthouse joked about how they too would have tried to spring him from jail, whatever he'd done. Then she remembered the Quartermaine girl, and wondered if the one who had pled to reckless driving was the same one.

The alleged victim usually didn't appear at arraignments, but this one, a Sean Monroe, stood there beside Ms. Jenson, as though it were an important hearing. Ursula saw the defendant get up, and it was no surprise that there was a girl who had come with him, sitting next to him.

Ms. Jenson explained that the defendant was charged with third degree assault. Though a misdemeanor well, at least Smith had gone down to misdemeanors, it meant there was at least a minor injury. No injury was Offensive Touching, and major injury was first or second degree assault. Ms. Jenson claimed to have photos of the victim's injuries. The defendant had allegedly punched the victim in the jaw.

Ursula noticed that the victim was taller and bigger than the defendant. Interesting how, if he'd stayed home and waited to appear at the trial, where he would have been sitting down most of the time, he'd be a more sympathetic figure right now.

The defendant looked smaller, but solid, and he was known for his recklessness. Ursula didn't think it was impossible he would attack someone bigger than he was under the right provocation.

Ms. Davis explained that her client had punched the alleged victim, but that the alleged victim wasn't injured. Therefore her client was guilty only of Offensive Touching.

"Did you punch him?" Ursula asked the defendant.

"Yes," said the defendant.

"Twice," said the alleged victim.

"Be quiet, Mr. Monroe," Ursula said. Ms. Jenson nudged Mr. Monroe and told him to be quiet, too.

"Why did you punch him?" Ursula asked.

"He was going on about my girlfriend, your honor, he used to date her, he was claiming she kissed him. He had just assaulted her."

"Did you see that?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

"She told me about it later."

"So you didn't know about it at the time?"

"Only from him."

Ursula looked at the alleged victim. "Mr. Monroe?"

"Well," said Mr. Monroe. "That doesn't give him a right to punch me."

He was right. "Mr. Kash - how do you pronounce it?"

"Smith," he said.

Ursula felt her mouth curve a little. You weren't supposed to laugh. Violating the law was serious.

"You can use that if it's easier, your honor," the defendant said. "If you want to use the real one, it's not as hard as it looks. Think of Khrushchev."

An image of Nikita Khrushchev arose in Ursula's mind. In black and white. With President John F. Kennedy. She had to try not to laugh again. She could see Ms. Davis was struggling with the same thing.

"Mr. Kanishchev," Ursula said, hitting it right, with that advice, "you can't physically assault people based on their words. It's a line in the sand, of our society. You can only fight back with more words. The first one to get physical is the initiator, in the law."

"I understand," he said. "I'm sorry. I'll try harder next time. I have to avoid him. He really is the most annoying person on earth."

Ursula knew she shouldn't be swayed by how adorable he was. He probably meant what he was saying now, but it didn't mean he'd remember it back out in the world. Again she struggled not to laugh.

"Mr. Monroe," she said, to distract herself. "You may be technically in the right, but then you don't have to say everything that occurs to you. You know you can't tease another man about his girlfriend, and you're going to be a victim many times if you don't learn to hold your tongue."

"OK, your honor," he said, obsequiously. Ursula instantly knew he had ambitions to be a lawyer. "I'll remember that next time."

"I hope so," Ursula said to him. "If what Mr. Kanishchev said is true, then the young lady might charge you with assault."

"She's here," Ms. Davis said.

"All right, have her come up here," Ursula said, suddenly inspired.

"What's your name?" Ursula asked her when she had come in through the gate. She was a petite girl, very pretty, with long blonde hair. She stood next to the defendant, between him and Ms. Davis.

"Quinn Connor," she said.

"What happened?"

"I was going to Kelly's, when I saw Mr. Monroe. We dated four years in college, not here, but out at Notre Dame. He's from Kentucky. It was at least a couple of years since I had seen him. Suddenly he showed up here, and said he was going to take the bar exam for New York. Suddenly he's dating my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. Then that day, I ran into him on the docks, and he grabbed me and kissed me. I struggled to get away from him. He was teasing me and picking me up. I got away. Later I talked to Zander and found out that this incident between the two of them was right after that."

She spoke sensibly, without getting too angry or excited, but enough to show she found the alleged victim to be very annoying. It was clear to Ursula that she adored the defendant.

She struck Ursula as a sensible person, and easily the most credible of the three of them.

"Before he came along," she added, indicating the alleged victim, "his alleged girlfriend Miss Quartermaine threw a cup of iced tea at me, which I understand is an Offensive Touching."

"Miss Quartermaine?" Ursula said.

"She's here," Mr. Monroe said.

It was the same girl who had just pled to reckless driving. "All right, bring her up," Ursula said. "Yes, you. You can come up here, too."

Miss Quartermaine looked offended that she should be dragged into this lurid proceeding.

"Look," Urusla said, trying to adopt a lecturing tone. "All four of you have to live in this town without disturbing its peace. One, you can avoid each other, but to the extent you can't, you have to learn to get along without coming to blows. For that you are wrong, Mr. Kanishchev, but I will give you one more chance. I am going to send this case to arbitration, where you can come to a settlement which, if you can abide by it, will result in this charge being dropped. Do you understand?"

"Yes," the defendant said. "Thank you, your honor."

"All right," Ursula said. "This court is in recess for a ten minute break." Then she went off the bench and into her office, where she could have a good laugh without disturbing the dignity of the law.


	25. Chapter 25

**Part 25**

"Why did you kiss her?" Emily asked Sean. They were sitting at a table at Kelly's.

"You don't believe them, do you?" Sean asked her.

"You mean she lied about it?"

"Of course."

"I don't think he got into all that much trouble for punching you. Much less than I did, and I didn't hurt someone else."

"He has a charmed life, that one."

Elizabeth came in to Kelly's, with Paul's niece, Taryn. They had been looking at bridesmaid's dresses.

"I talked to Jeremy today," Taryn said, as they sat down. Elizabeth ordered two glasses of lemonade.

"How was that?" Elizabeth asked.

"I ran into him at the country club. He said he went out with some girl and said she wore too much make up."

"He's the one who wanted to date other girls!"

"He sounds like he doesn't think it's much fun. Is he trying to string me along?"

"Maybe. Probably. I'm not sure. I dated the same guy all through high school."

Taryn sighed. "We got along so well. We were like best friends. I miss just doing stuff."

"It's time to find the girls and hang out with them," Elizabeth advised. "Have fun. I know, you can come with me, to the party the company is having. They have these parties every once in awhile, to show off the new models. They took all these pictures in the gardens of Port Charles. Ridiculous. But you can hang out there with me and we'll have a good old time."

"Thanks, Elizabeth," Taryn said. 

"Saturday night, don't forget," Elizabeth said.

"That'll cheer me up," Taryn answered. "Then if Jeremy asks me what I'm doing, then I can say I'm going somewhere."

"Tell him that anyway," Elizabeth advised. "We'll make sure you go somewhere! And get your mind off of him!"

Quinn showed Zander some photos from her birthday, sitting by the pool at Oksana's house, on her day off.

"This is nice," he said. "Who took all these?"

"Grandmom, Mom," Quinn said. "Look, you got in this one with Great Granddad."

Zander hadn't realized anyone had snapped a picture of him when he was talking to Mick Connor. He was charmed. He smiled.

"I wish I had family history like this," he said.

"I guess you have to make yours," Quinn said. "You've got some traditions."

"I don't have one for the end of the world, though," he said. "Can I borrow old Mary's?"

"I'll get you a set of rosary beads," Quinn giggled. "When the end of the world comes, you run out to the Quartermaines with them and demand to be let in."

"You're so funny," he said, laying the pictures down. "Thank you for coming to court. I think the judge really listened to you."

"It was worth the trip to see her lecture Sean," Quinn said. "After he almost threw me in the water like that."

"You might end up getting thrown in the water, yet."

"Don't even think about it!"

He laughed, and pulled her to her feet.

"You'd better not!" she laughed.

"Aw, come on, Quee-in," he drawled, like Sean. "Don't leave a guy to go in the pool all by himself."

She pushed at him playfully, and he jumped in. "Now look what you've done, you've knocked me eee-in," he pretended to complain. "I'm a wet shyster."

Quinn laughed hard, then taking pity on him, and because it was pretty hot, jumped into the pool too.

"You gotta come to the company party," Oksana told Quinn, in the kitchen, later.

"Lisa helped with the pictures," Rosa said, proudly.

"I'd like that," Quinn said.

"Did you kiss her good night this time?" Diana was asking Tim.

"I'm too shy," Tim grinned.

"Are you waiting for your twentieth date, or for after the wedding?" Diana teased him.

"I think he should find another girl," Zander said.

"He's shy, he said, not that he doesn't like her," Rosa laughed. "Isn't that so, Timmy?"

"I think so," Tim said. "But Sandy always advises this way, and he and Quinn are the matchmakers."

"Yeah, Sandy, if you think he needs someone else then find someone else and quit talking about it," said Peter, getting everyone else laughing.

"I'm keeping my eyes open," said Zander. 


	26. Chapter 26

**Part 26**

Quinn and Zander went into the elevator to get up to the party at Deception. Before the doors completely shut, someone yelled. Zander pushed the button to open the door again.

"Thank you! Oh, hi!" It was Cheryl Shue. Scott got on right after her.

"Hello," Quinn said.

"Hello," said Scott, in a similar tone. Friendly, only slightly guarded. Quinn had been his girlfriend in high school.

"This is Zander," Cheryl said to Scott.

They shook hands.

"How are you?" Cheryl asked them.

"I was just going to ask Quinn about her time today at the track," Zander said.

"Still driving that old car of Joe's?" Scott asked Quinn.

"Yeah," she said. "It was a little tight today."

"Danny and Joe'll fix that," Scott said.

"I think it's so cool you race that car," Cheryl said to Quinn.

"Come to the speedway sometime," Quinn said.

The doors opened on Deception's floor.

They walked into a light crowd. Cheryl saw somebody she wanted Scott to meet.

"We get along with them fine," Zander said, when they'd gone off.

Quinn giggled, and squeezed his hand. "They're not as recent," she said.

"I don't think that's it. I think it's that are - well, merely less irritating."

"That could be, too. More engaging personalities. Scott's easy going. Sean's irritating. Cheryl's kind. Emily's stupid."

"Matched up perfectly. Almost as if we'd done it ourselves. We can't split up. I have no old girlfriends left. All I could come up with for Paul was a friend."

Quinn put her arm around his waist and turned her head up to kiss him. "I don't have anybody left for you, either."

"You look so great," he said. "Every one of these models should run for her life."

"Thanks," she said, smiling up at him. She and Joanna had gone out and found the sexiest numbers they could find. Quinn's was green and low cut and flattering, and she felt pretty good in it.

Elizabeth and Paul were with Taryn, and Taryn turned to say hello to Quinn.

"There he is," Zander said, "Still smarting that he didn't get into the race after the time trials."

"I know when I'm beat," Paul said, good humoredly. Quinn smiled. She liked Zander taking up for her like that, even if it was mostly a joke.

"Quinn's had more experience," Taryn said. "That's what Uncle Paul says."

"She has been at it for longer," Paul said, but he smiled. "She got me interested, anyway."

"Are you planning your wedding yet?" Quinn asked.

"We've looked at dresses for the bridesmaids," Elizabeth said. "Taryn and I."

"Who else is in your wedding?"

"There's my sister, she's the maid of honor, of course. Then I have Taryn, V. and Emily. I kind of had to ask her," she added.

"You might not want Quinn and I even there," Zander said. "Not if you have Emily and Sean. Otherwise, a restraining order may apply in your wedding."

"How did that go?" Paul grinned. "Was it Sean that had you arrested that day?"

"Of course."

"I'm sure he would have the decency to behave at a wedding," Paul said.

"I'm not as sure, but you could be right."

Oksana wanted something big moved, and took Zander and Paul off to help with it.

Quinn saw Gia, who came over to talk to her. "Elizabeth has gotten stuck with Emily the bridesmaid too," Quinn said to Gia. 

Gia looked around. "Are there any Quartermaines here?"

"Joanna is bringing AJ, but there're not here yet," Quinn said.

"Well, I hope it goes OK," Gia said to Elizabeth. "With her around, you run the risk your wedding becomes about her."

"I'm not so worried about Emily, as her escort," Elizabeth said. "I wonder if he'll still be in the picture by then."

"There is hope that not. Nobody lasts that long with Emily," Gia observed. "But you look wonderful, Quinn. Where did you find your dress?"

A while later, a band started to play in the big room they used for photo shoots. The models came out one by one, onto the catwalk, dancing to the band. When that was over, everyone could dance.

"Didn't you ask that girl with the funny name to come?" Zander asked Tim.

"No. I don't dance that well."

"An Irishman who can't dance?"

"Here, I'll teach you," Quinn laughed. She took Tim out onto the dance floor.

Zander watched them awhile, feeling happy. He saw Diana and asked her if she wanted to dance.

"He's doing better," Zander said, when he and Diana had come closer to Tim and Quinn.

"I think he might even be ready for another partner," Quinn said. "Are you brave, Diana?"

Diana laughingly agreed. They switched partners.

"Good work," Zander said. "I knew that girl with the funny name wasn't working out."

"What's good work?"

"A good match. Tim and Diana. See, look at him now. He's having fun and he's not nervous."

"He's comfortable with her because she's a friend."

"Which is a good start. There, over there, another one of our successes."

Alexis and Jerry were dancing, and looked like they were having a good time.

Peter saw Taryn with Elizabeth and Paul. "Tim can dance, after all," he said to Taryn.

"Yes, he's not bad at all," she agreed.

A slow dance began to play.

Elizabeth and Paul looked like they wanted to go out to dance. "Come with me," Peter said to Taryn. "I'll show you the pictures of the models in the gallery."

"This is the garden at our house," he said. There were several shots of Gia and Cheryl and a few other models taken from the garden at Oksana's house.

"That's a big garden," she said. "It must be a big house?"

"It is," he said. "Lisa's the gardener."

"You have a gardener?"

"Yes. There's the house, in that picture."

"I've never known anybody who lived in a house like that," Taryn said.

"This is the Quartermaine's garden, I think," Peter said, when they had come to a new set of pictures. "They live down the street."

"Oh, that's the type of neighborhood you live in."

"You look like you think it's a pretty bad neighborhood."

"Well, in some ways, maybe."

"You can come over some time to check it out to see if it's as bad as you think."

"Oh, thanks, but I wouldn't fit into that neighborhood."

"Oh, it's not that hard. Especially at our place."

Taryn just smiled, a little distantly, and looked at the next photograph.


	27. Chapter 27

**Part 27 PG-13**

Quinn and Zander were dancing close.

"Let's go," he said, "I have somewhere I want to take you."

She smiled in assent, and walked off, holding his hand, with a feeling of pleasurable anticipation.

"So what are we doing here?" Quinn smiled. He parked by the side of a field. They walked a little way, and then came to a barn. He knew his way around. He even turned on a light.

"Well," he said, putting his arms around her and drawing her further in. There were bales of hay everywhere. She laughed. "It's like this. I had memories of our house in Florida. They weren't so good overall. Not that they were so bad, but that it became painful in my mind after all that time. Now I see the map of Florida and Russia in my house, but when it reminds me of the house in Florida, mostly I think of the time you went there with me. Now I remember you on the beach, and I even remember the guest room better than mine, being in there knowing you were sleeping in my room."

"That's nice," she said.

"Yeah, it makes that house a better memory overall," he said. "Just that one night re-colors it all, do you understand?"

"OK."

"So this place is where I felt the worst I ever did in my life, I think, outside maybe the day Dad got arrested when he followed us back from Moscow."

"Oh! This is _the_ barn!"

"Right!"

"So," she said, kissing him. "I can create another memory for this place."

"Right," he said. "You don't mind?"

"No," she answered. "Though it's different. Here, you're talking about another woman, not your parents."

He stepped forward so as to push her backwards. "But nothing big happened here. You know that," he grinned.

"OK," she laughed. She looked through her purse. "Here's my cell phone. It's off." She turned it off with a gesture to make a show of it.

"That's the way," he said, grinning. He kissed her again, for a long time, then they ended up down on the hay.

"Now I know what they mean by a roll in the hay," Quinn said.

"Oh, I'll show you what they mean by that," he answered.

She undid all his shirt buttons and kissed him on the chest several times.

"Finally you had a roll in the hay," she said, still breathing hard.

"I never did before," he said. "Thanks for breaking me in."

She laughed. Then they heard a long, low, "mooooooooooooo."

They jumped and grabbed each other.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"A cow," Quinn said, starting to laugh again.

"A cow?"

"This is a _barn_," she said, laughing really hard now. He was the only one in the world who could get her to laugh that hard.

"There never was any cow here before!" he said, but then he started smiling, realizing how absurd it was. He put a piece of straw in his mouth. She started laughing harder. "And what did she see?" he asked, with mock horror.

"She's an _adult!_" Quinn went off again into peals of laughter.

She hugged him really tight. He laughed and lay back down, pulling her head down onto his shoulder.

"So now your memories from here should be redone."

"Now they're pretty funny," he said, squeezing her to him again. "I'll remember you, and how much I love you, and how much fun we had."

"And you'll also remember her."

"A little, but it won't hurt too bad."

"Oh, come on, now, Bessie just scared you a little, that's all!"

He looked at her, then laughed, then took a handful of straw and threw it at her. She threw some back at him. They laughed until they stopped and stared, and went back to each other for another kiss.

"Hey," he said, "I have one more place I would like you to help me remember differently."

"Only one?" she asked. "I thought maybe I'd be spending evenings in all the barns in the county."

"No."

"Where?" she said, truly wondering.

"Vee must vork on your Russian, comrade," he said.


	28. Chapter 28

**Part 28**

"I know it may be hard to understand, Joanna," Quinn was saying. "But I've never felt so happy in my life. His wanting to take me all the way there just because he was there without me."

"It's sort of like you taking him to your great-grandfather's old street, or to Notre Dame," Joanna said.

"Yes. It's so far for him to do the same things."

"It's sweet. It is very sweet."

"I guess I didn't think how easy it is for me. It's natural he should be around my parents, or my brother, or my godfather. It didn't take an effort."

"He's had a strange life, as you say."

"Speaking of that, how is AJ?"

Joanna laughed. "Getting heat from the family, for bailing on his sister."

"What? They think it was better to keep up lying?"

"Yeah, I guess they admire the original plan much more."

"Poor AJ. Poor you. I guess Glen is gone."

"And Glen has a pretty nice family, too."

"But you decide on dealing with the Mansons."

"I can't help myself."

"And I really think, no matter what Zander says, that the Mansons are so much worse than the Kan-ish-chevs."

"You really are in love! You learned to pronounce that? Have you tried to write your name that way?"

Quinn giggled. "I think I even have to add an "a" to the end of it."

"As if it didn't already have enough letters!"

"In Russian one letter takes care of four of those. You won't believe how much Russian I already know. I'm amazed myself. Zander really can explain things well. I think there is something in this teacher theory."

"You're just so gone for the teacher, you'll listen to anything he says."

"You must be gone yourself, or you'd be running from the Manson Family. They'll actually come to you and bug you for influencing him. You got him to commit a mortal sin. Fail to protect Little Emily. You have to really be gone for AJ! You'll have Little Emily in your life all the time. This is no ordinary little-sister-of-the-boyfriend. You must adjust your life and his for her protection."

"I'll be in a position to warn you. My whole relationship with AJ is undertaken only to protect you from Little Emily."

"Oh, right! I don't have to ask you if you went to bed with him again."

"I can't help myself."

"Love has its way, logic or none."

"And cannot be controlled."

"Yeah," Quinn said, a little dreamily.

Joanna was nervous, driving up to the Quartermaine's. She'd been invited for dinner.

A servant showed her into a large living room. This was even more intimidating. She was alone in there.

Suddenly a door opened. Sean Monroe walked in, as if he owned the place.

"Hi!" he said. "So you're here, too?"

"No, I'm still at the hospital."

"Hahaha," he said. "How's Quinn?" he asked her.

"She's in love."

"Awwwww. And I haven't even seen her since the day in court."

"Not with _you_!" Joanna laughed.

Sean laughed too. "Oh, heck," he said. "With Mr. Kan-ish-chev? That's not going to last. He's doomed. Especially with me around," he added, adjusting his collar as though to say, "I'm so incredibly irresistible."

"_You're_ doomed," Joanna asserted.

"Well, we will see," he answered.

AJ came into the room. "Hi, Joanna," he went over to her and hugged her. "I'm sorry you waited down here. I meant to be down here before you got here. I see you have some company."

"She doesn't mind," Sean said, grinning. "I'm one of her favorite people."

"One of my favorite people to be amazed at the inanity of," she said.

"Ouch!" Sean said. "But you love me for my inanity. Oh, Emily, hello."

Joanna said hello to Emily.

"We were just talking of Quinn's undying love for Mr. Kan-ish-chev."

"At least you can say it," Joanna said. "But she's so happy. He said he wanted to take her to Russia, which is a real sign of true love. He already took her to Florida and there is some great meaning in some barn he took her to."

"A barn?" Sean asked, laughing. "If I had only known that was the way to Quinn's heart! There are plenty of those down in Kentucky."

Emily looked struck.

"What's the matter, Emily?" AJ asked.

"Russia?" was all she said.

"His parents are from there. He lived there a little while," Joanna explained.

"I never knew that," Emily said.

"Another thing you didn't know," Sean said, patting Emily on the back. "Well, don't worry, Emily. Quinn is just more persistent in getting facts."

"I'll say," Emily said, a little sarcastically.

"How's the community service coming along?" Joanna asked Emily, just a bit icily.

Fortunately, Emily's parents and grandparents came in just then.

"Well, Mr. Kan-ish-chev should be happy now," Sean said.

"Well come, let's go in to dinner," Edward Quartermaine said. "And no discussion of that Russian pirate. Or his deviant son."


	29. Chapter 29

**Part 29**

Zander and Sergei were at the Outback, waiting for Quinn.

Zander told Sergei how he wanted to take Quinn to Moscow. "I want to stay in the Central Hotel," he said.

"You don't have to," Sergei said. "I still have the flat."

"You do?" Zander asked. "That's great, Dad!"

Quinn came in. Zander got up, and kissed her. "Dad still has the little apartment in Moscow!"

"As opposed to the big apartment?" she asked, her eyes twinkling.

"Nyet," Zander answered. "There is no such thing as a big apartment in Moscow."

"It's the one where you lived when you were there?"

"Yeah."

"You can stay there, not in some hotel," Sergei said.

"But that's wonderful!" Quinn exclaimed. "Fits right in with the purpose of the trip."

"I'll show you the real sights, too," Zander said.

"OK, but the real sights to me are what has to do with you," she laughed, a gave him a kiss.

Sergei smiled. "You lucky, Sander. You met this girl so young."

Zander met Jackson Delaney at the country club to play tennis against him. Jackson wasn't half bad.

Peter and Tim went with him, and they got Tim in as a guest. The boys played tennis against each other, cutting up more than playing, but generally keeping score, while Zander and Jackson played like it was real match.

Branwyn and her cousin Kara were walking back from the pool.

"There's Tim Connor," Branwyn said. "With that other guy. Peter Smith."

"He's really cute," Kara said.

"Tim's OK. Peter's rather cute though. Come to think of it."

"Girls in skimpy bathing suits at 1:00," Tim said, grinning, when both he and Peter were close to the net.

Peter turned discreetly. "Ah, Branwyn. And her cousin."

"Hi," Peter said, when they had walked far enough to be going along the court Peter and Tim were playing on. "Wanna play against us?"

Tim blessed his lucky stars that Pete was so unshy.

"I don't play much," Branwyn said.

"Neither do we," said Pete.

The girls laughed.

Pete found them some racquets. Branwyn naturally went to Tim's side. Kara felt like Pete belonged to her. It made her feel shy.

The game was fun. They laughed and didn't keep score. Tim went so diligently after one bouncing ball, long after it would have, under the rules, be considered out of play, that the girls and Pete were in stitches.

They sat by the pool until it was time to go home. Jackson came for the girls and Zander for the boys. All four went home in their own state of wonder and excitement.

Zander and Quinn watched the Pennsylvania 500 at the Connors. When it was over, Danny grilled hamburgers in the back yard.

"I got an invitation to Elizabeth's wedding," Joe Quinn said.

"I didn't get one," Quinn said. "But I could. She mentioned us coming, at the party. She likes Paul and I being friends. I told her though that, since Little Emily is one of her bridesmaids, and she may bring Shyster Sean, that it may be like oil and water and cause a ruckus at her wedding."

"That wouldn't be too bad," Danny said. "Many an Irish wedding has ended up in a ruckus."

"I don't think this involves the Irish, Dad," Quinn said.

"Strange, who would have thought Little Emily would date the Shyster?" Kathleen said.

"Little Emily and the Shyster," Danny repeated. "It sounds like a porno movie!"

"The Nurse and the Shyster sounds more like one," Zander said, nudging Quinn.

"Aren't you glad you missed that movie, Zander?" Kathleen said, with a laughing look. "When it was out?"

"I don't think he should be able to stop us from going anywhere, though, Quinn," said Zander.

"He can because he's the one in control," said Quinn. "You're the one that throws punches."

"Well, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry," said Kathleen. "It's part of your charm."

"I'm not sure I'd want Quinn to date somebody who wouldn't want to deck the Shyster," said Danny.

"Thanks, Danny. But I am the one keeping Quinn home from something."

"It's hardly the social event of the season. It's my ex-boyfriend! I will live without going."

"You know something, maybe you could go, with Joe. If he hasn't already got a hot date, that is."

"Why could I go? I might deck the Shyster myself."

"Yeah, maybe we can tell them - Elizabeth and Paul - we'll take them out, on a double date, someday, to celebrate their wonderful wedding."

"Not a bad idea. Like the one with Gia and her husband."

"You have a double date?" Kathleen asked.

"Yeah, with one Gia, one of the models, and her husband."

"A married couple!" Kathleen said, "Oh, this is serious."

"You mean there's something to going on a double date with a married couple?" Quinn asked.

"Oh, yes, it's a big step forward."

"I don't know. Are we ready for this commitment?" Quinn asked Zander.

"Sure," he said. "Bring it on."


	30. Chapter 30

**Part 30**

The music club under Kelly's diner was in full swing. Bands played there on the weekends.

AJ invited Joanna to go, and while he was getting ready to leave the house, Sean asked him where he was going. He told Sean, and Sean went up and suggested the brilliant idea to Emily, that they go too. AJ was already gone, but the club was a public place. Anyway, didn't Emily want to go out and dance?

Emily hadn't planned on going out that night. But it was tempting. Sean could be fun in a place like that.

Meanwhile, Zander had taken Quinn, Gia and Nik for a drive in the Porsche. They went out to dinner and then decided they would stop at the new club.

Being on a double date like that added to the feeling of being a couple, or somehow, belonging together. Quinn liked the feeling, rather than feeling stifled by it, as she had before, with Sean or Paul. She couldn't fathom why.

Quinn was talking to Gia about clothes and modeling when her eye caught the door. "Oh, great," she said, "they're here. I wonder if we should get out of here."

"We're not leaving just because they come in," Zander said, noticing Emily and Sean.

"Do we have to get territorial?" Quinn asked.

Zander laughed. "Let's protect our turf. The Shyster belongs in Kentucky."

"They dumped him here."

"Smart people, the Kentuckians," Zander said. "Maybe we can come up with some plan to lure him to Siberia."

"Get him out of the US and then steal his passport," Quinn said.

"Exactly! What a memory!"

"I'm picking that up from you."

"Don't worry," Nikolas said. "There are so many people here."

"Yeah," Gia said. "There's AJ and your friend, with them."

"Oh," Quinn laughed. "Not to worry. Joanna will supervise them."

"Shall we dance?" Zander asked Quinn. The band played a slow song.

Nikolas and Gia went out onto the dance floor, too.

AJ and Joanna stood near Emily and Sean.

"There are our best buddies out there, Emily," Sean said. "Zander the mystery man and Quinn the mystery solver."

"They're sweet," Joanna said. "They fit together."

"Shall I cut in?" Sean asked mischievously.

"No!" Joanna said in horror.

"Stay here, Sean," AJ said.

"You used to be on my side," Emily said to AJ.

"I'm still on your side," AJ said. "That's why I think Sean should stay put."

"I was kidding," Sean said.

"The trouble with you is that one never knows," AJ said to him.


	31. Chapter 31

**Part 31**

Quinn felt like she was at the top of the world, standing in Red Square. It was cloudy. There were a lot of people milling around, coming from and going in every direction, but it didn't feel crowded.

"There's the Spasskaya Tower," Zander said. "See the red star at the top? And the big clock."

"The one that chimes on New Year's?"

"Exactly. What a top notch memory!"

"The square is so big!"

"It's easy to orient yourself. Turn this way. That's St. Basil's. Turn left. That's the big department store."

"Looks more like a palace, or a fancy hotel."

"It's a communist leftover. Turn left, that's the historical museum. Then the last side is the Kremlin wall."

"There's Lenin's tomb. I can actually read the name. Thanks to my teacher."

"I knew that the first thing you'd want to see would be that corpse, nurse."

The temperature in a glass vault of a coffin, was kept at 61 degrees, to keep the body from decaying. They stared at the body of the long departed Lenin, who looked kind of waxy, but like he was sleeping.

"He died in 1924. He's been here since 1924," Quinn marveled, staring at him.

"It's stupid," Zander said. "Now, down at Monticello, there was a simple stone memorial to Jefferson, right on his own property, and he was buried there, like a decent human being. This tyrant, he's preserved in a refrigerator. There's a lack of dignity to it. He deserves it, though."

"That must not be the way they looked at it."

"No, they treated it with reverence."

"From what I've managed to pick up about this, I thought Stalin was the tyrant. That was the era that decimated your family."

"Yes. Carrying on the idea through, though. Or Lenin was the one who started it being done."

"Get them back. You could do it by having a lot of children. Wasn't it that they erased them, or something? They tried to erase the Kanishchevs. So have lots of little ones."

"Lots of American ones. I may call them Smith."

Quinn laughed. "Your wife may not want to carry around a name that has no meaning."

"I'll never ask _you_ to marry me. No, you'll have to do the asking."

"All because I was unfortunate enough to be asked by two of the wrong people? I _had_ to turn them down!"

"OK," he laughed. "but it also proves you ought to be the one to ask. You do the choosing, because you can. You're the one everybody wants."

She put an arm around him. "Let's go out," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "And leave his refrigerated tyranny to chill."

They were in the little apartment. Zander had gotten the key from Aleksei, the neighbor who kept it for Sergei.

Quinn unpacked a little.

"It is so cool to see you in this place," he said. "You can't imagine what fun it is for me."

She smiled, went over and kissed him, then went back.

"I'm amazed Sergei didn't rent this place out," she said.

"It's not worth it," Zander said. "In US dollars, what you would get for it makes it worth keeping so he can stay here if he comes over for business trips, rather than stay in a hotel. I wish there was an air conditioner, but it's not worth it, either, for the number of days use you would have for it."

"I don't think it's too warm in here," she said.

"You wouldn't" he grinned. "Now I realize something. I have to get you back here in the winter so you can find out what it's really like over here."

"I'm cold just thinking about it."

She put her passport on the table.

"Don't lose your passport," he said. "You could spend the rest of your life in Russia."

"I remember. But that might not be so bad, if you're here!"


	32. Chapter 32

**Part 32**

Quinn and Zander met Zander's teacher, Arkady Petrovich Nikiforov for lunch. He spoke a little English, and Quinn tried a little Russian. Zander liked translating for them. Quinn could see he really liked that she and Arkady met and talked.

Quinn told Arkady Petrovich that her mother was a teacher, and that they thought Zander would make a good teacher, too.

Arkady Petrovich agreed enthusiastically and talked about how he remembered Zander being such a good student and teacher.

They showed Quinn through the school. There weren't many people there, because of summer vacation.

"This is the school you went to, and did well at," Quinn said. "Like you'll do at PCU."

"It was a great school to go to. No Junk 101. No constant distraction. You just learned the stuff without any BS."

"You sound like you think there's a lot of BS in American school."

"It seemed like there was to me, anyway. Here, you didn't have to figure out what to take and you didn't have to figure out how to study."

"It's a long way from here to PCU."

"It sure is!"

"That room has little desks," Quinn said, as she looked into a room from the hallway.

"Sure, for the little kids."

"Little kids? It's a high school."

"There's no such thing here. There's just school."

"Really? You'd go from first grade to graduation in this building?"

"If you lived in this neighborhood, yes. And people don't move around as much."

"That's nice."

"Yes. The class went to school together the whole time. So you know everybody in your class really well."

"You share the whole school experience with them."

"I guess you did too, though. You just all moved together from St. Michael's to Mercy High."

"Yes, though there were people who went somewhere else, rather than Mercy High, and people in Mercy High who had not been to St. Michael's. And, as you said, people move. Even if they don't move that far they can end up in another diocese, and so another school. Or they move to private school or public school. But anyway, you didn't have it either way. You went from one private school to another to this one and then back."

"Yeah, thanks to all the fun Sergei and Oksana got us into."

"You must remember some of the other students in your class, though."

"I remember them pretty well."

"You could find some of them, maybe."

"It wouldn't be that hard, here, probably. As long as I can remember their name and patronymic."

"You ought to look up somebody."

"What would you do? That could bore you."

"No it wouldn't. I'd try to make out as much of the language as I can – I wouldn't be any more lost!"

"Doesn't sound fun."

"I'd like it if you were enjoying it."

He thought for a little while. He hugged her, and said something to Arkady in Russian. Arkady smiled.

"There are your grandparents, too," Quinn said.

"We can see them another time. That city's so far away."

"OK," she said.

"In the winter. When it's really cold. Even colder there. It's on the edge of Siberia."

"You're making me cold thinking about it."

He put his arms around her tighter. "That's to get the chance to warm you up."

"That'll work," she said, with a big smile.

"It cracks me up, the way the stores are just called what they sell," Quinn said to Zander, in the apartment. "Instead of Kelly's Coffee Shop, it's just Coffee."

"Another communist hangover."

"It's good though. Russians in the US would be confused. The place is called "Kelly's" but you have to go in to see what they sell there."

"Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have the sign say what's there, too. I wonder if it ever said Kelly's Diner. Then the town is small so everybody just knows."

"And there's a separate store for everything. No supermarkets."

"It works out OK, though, because you just walk to them. Dad sent us out all the time. You get to know the people who work there, and it's no big deal."

"Sounds nice, in its way. And in a big city, to be that way, it's different. I'll go out and get some more coffee, anyway."

"I'll go with you."

"No, relax. It's a challenge for me."

"You won't get lost?"

"If I do, I'll ask somebody."

"You know the name of the nearest metro station?"

She spelled it out for him.

"And what's our address, here?"

She said the name of the street, and gave him the building number, block number and apartment number. He seemed satisfied. Still, he wrote it on a slip of paper and gave it to her to show somebody who could help her if she got lost.

"Be very careful. Look both ways before you cross the street, carefully and deliberately. They are terrible drivers."

"You sure are hard on your countrymen!"

"Well, that doesn't mean they aren't the worst drivers in the world."

"OK," she laughed. "I'll watch out."

"If you get lost, just ask anybody on the street to help you find that address," he said. "I'll go easy on them there. They won't mug, rape or murder you, they'll just help you find your way back. But don't trust such of them as are behind the wheel of any motor vehicle to stop at a red light or any crossing."

"OK," she laughed, going out.


	33. Chapter 33

**Part 33**

Quinn found the coffee store, and bought the coffee without speaking English.

She liked how nice the people were about her speaking Russian. They usually said she was doing well. She knew she might be close to incomprehensible. So she went slow and wrote things down. Her writing seemed to impress them most.

She liked writing it; it was like a sort artistic thing for her.

She took a wrong turn on the way back and got lost. Two boys, about 12, Sasha and Borya, took her back, all the way to the building, block and apartment.

Zander gave them a cup of hot chocolate. They talked about school.

"I could get used to this," Quinn said. "It's nice. Fun."

"I'm glad. I was just thinking about how a normal guy might take you to a tropical beach."

"Well, you're not normal. But that's not bad. Not at all."

Sean went to the bar in the Port Charles Hotel.

He saw Skye sitting at the end of it.

"You're not supposed to be drinking," he said to her.

She looked at him with eyes of sarcasm.

"So where's Emily?" she asked him.

"She went to a fitting for Elizabeth's wedding. What are you up to?" 

"None of your business."

"Do you have a job?"

"I'm a daughter of privilege."

"That's great for you. But what do you do all day?"

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know?"

"Emily doesn't know what you do all day, either."

"So you asked her. Funny, you and she. She doesn't seem your type."

"What's her type?"

"I really couldn't say."

"I'm not her type. I don't think I am. I've been trying forever. But no go."

"What does the little brat want?"

"I have no idea. Sometimes I think maybe she's a little bit frigid."

"I don't know, I think Zander managed it. What an ego you have! That's what it means that a woman's not all over you?"

"No, not that. I talked to her. She never gets into it. I asked her. In the last couple of years, her entire sex life is this: one night with Zander and one with a student at the University of Kentucky. Now for somebody that pretty, it's odd."

"Maybe she just has her standards."

"They must be awfully high. Only two guys have managed and neither of them got any further than one night. Quinn even told her I wasn't half bad. Still, no real interest."

"Who is Quinn?"

"My girlfriend from college and law school. She's a nurse here; she's from this town."

"So Quinn is a nurse, who went to college and law school wherever you did?"

"Yes. Well, just college, for her. I was in law school the last two years she was in college."

"And you happen to come to this town with Emily?"

"We talked, and I knew it was the same town. Emily asked me to be her date at a wedding. It was worth checking out."

"So you really came to see your old girlfriend, Quinn?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that."

"I would. And so you are staying here to pursue this Quinn. Emily doesn't even realize that."

"Emily I think really likes Zander. Now as luck would have it, Quinn's dating Zander. So Emily wouldn't care."

"So you and Emily are a couple that exists only to come between Quinn and Zander?"

"I wouldn't put it like that."

"I won't even ask you how you _would_ put it."

"Well, have a drink with me, because I found out I passed the New York Bar Exam."

"I thought you said I wasn't supposed to drink."

"You can have a Shirley Temple."

He ordered himself a martini, too.

"So you don't care about Emily and never did," commented Skye. "You came here because of your ex-fiancee."

"Don't care is a little strong. Quinn wasn't my fiancée, either. I tried, but she turned me down. I like Emily. Though she's doing a terrible job of drawing off Zander. I may need to replace her with someone more sophisticated." He flipped the ends of Skye's hair.

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Do you have anything better to do?"

"If Zander won't go for Emily, he won't go for me!"

"You don't know that! He never knew he had the chance."

"You are beyond ridiculous. And you like women who turn you down. The only two you've mentioned have done it."

"Quinn didn't turn me down nearly so entirely. We dated a long time."

"Why would she go back to you now?"

"Hey, if you can't appreciate my charms, that's OK, but-"

"Obviously I'm referring to the fact she already broke with you once before."

"She didn't. She didn't want to break up. Just not get married. I jumped the gun. Than I pushed her. That was a bad gamble. She came back here."

"And since then, no other girl has stolen your heart."

"Something like that."


	34. Chapter 34

**Part 34**

Alexis and Zander went to the Arbitrator's office.

Sean and Bernard Bach were already there, in the waiting room.

"How're things, Smith?" Sean said.

"Just fine. How're things with you, shyster?"

Sean laughed. "Oh, I've been chasing ambulances since the day I got my New York Bar Card."

"I'm sure you are," Zander said, feeling a little relieved, as he'd begun entertaining a fear that he might end up socking Sean in that mouth at the arbitration.

The arbitrator called them into a conference room.

"I'm Ted Goldenburg," he said. "I'm a lawyer, doing mostly criminal defense. Now the court frequently appoints me to be an arbitrator in cases like this. You've been picked for arbitration, because the court determined that you may be able to work something out without legal intervention. I'll let your lawyers talk. Ms. Davis can go first, because her client is the defendant. Please try to get into the spirit of this Ms. Davis. I know your natural skills will tend to get you to want to advocate your client's side. It goes against the grain to try to see the other side."

"I understand," Alexis said. "I'll try, and you can stop me anytime you think I'm going into attack mode."

"OK," Ted said, with a smile.

Alexis went on: "We're lucky, because both of these young men have more than common familiarity with the legal system. Mr. Monroe is a lawyer himself. Zander has been my clerk for about a year. He's a friend too, a bit of a confidante and he's heard my lamentations about the system and about my cases."

Ted smiled.

"He's also been a frequent defendant, and he has a lot of familiarity that way," said Bernard Bach.

"Well, Mr. Bach, you're sort of already getting out of the spirit of the thing," Ted said.

"Oh, sorry," Bach said. "I was just kidding around a little bit."

"It's true, anyway," Zander said. "Not that exaggerated, but I have been arrested and charged before. This is nothing compared to that. But it was long ago now, too. My father has also been put in jail for violating a custody order."

"Custody of you?" Ted asked, curious.

"Yes, when I was a kid he took my brother and I to Russia when my mother had custody. He was from there originally."

"An international custody battle, how interesting," Ted said. "I mean, sorry, I don't mean to make light of the pain it must have caused."

"I didn't think you were. I understand the professional interest. It's not a bad thing for _somebody_ to be unemotional about it all."

"Zander and I talked about this case," Alexis said. "He knows that legally you'll get consequences for punching somebody, even if they don't get hurt - that it's not allowed by society - I think he can get control of his impulses now. He knows Mr. Monroe annoys him and that he has to watch out for that and avoid Mr. Monroe. He's got some concern about freedom of movement, that is, he's been out with his girlfriend and they've ended up in the same place as Mr. Monroe, and Zander has a bit of the attitude, why should I leave a place because he shows up. We think Mr. Monroe can keep control of himself. That's the disadvantage. At the same time, Mr. Monroe's lack of control is in the area of keeping his thoughts to himself. He's like a provoking smart aleck. We get that he's allowed to do that without any legal consequences, while Zander's method of just punching him is not. But working something out might be possible if we can get Mr. Monroe to agree, or understand, that it would help a lot if he could keep a few of his smart aleck thoughts to himself. Maybe he could write them in a diary and send them to me, and that would relieve him. I'm not saying he should hold it all in. Just find a better venue for them."

"Good thought," Ted said. "Mr. Bach?"

Bach was at a real loss. He didn't have much to say. He was always in attack mode, for one thing, and didn't see how to get out of it without ending up a loser. It went so against the grain to give in on anything that he was without words. This alone got him worried. He was a lawyer and being without words felt like losing.

"Relax, Mr. Bach," Ted said. His experience led him to guess how Bach saw it. He was amazed at how much better women were at mediating. "I always joke with my colleagues about testosterone and how woman are better at negotiating a win-win situation. The legal system should be turned over to them, I think, sometimes. Sexist as it is. All the judges and lawyers should be women. And the United Nations, too. Every country should send a woman."

Everyone laughed.

"Well, in that spirit," Bach said. "I can't believe I'm saying this. But Ms. Davis already has the perfect proposal. I was thinking of the usual restraining order where they have to stay 100 feet away, but to Mr. Smith's disadvantage in that he had to clear out if they end up in the same place. But in the spirit of it, if I were Mr. Smith, I'd hate that. I'd really hate to have to leave a place I'd taken my girlfriend to because somebody I didn't like chose to show up. And I'm pretty sure Mr. Monroe might go out of his way to show up."

"Hey, you're too much into the spirit of this thing, Bernie!" Sean said, laughingly. "I'm kidding," he said to Ted, right away.

"Does it help at all," Ted asked Zander. "If he tells you he's kidding? Say you take everything he says with the proverbial grain of salt. Easier said than done, I suppose."

"I think I could do that," Zander said.

"See, you can kid him back. He doesn't get to punch you either."

"He's smart enough to do that," Alexis said. "He's just not such a smart aleck, so it's not natural."

"I hope, Mr. Monroe, you'll mature out of that," Ted said. "Everybody's not up for a joke all the time."

"The judge said something to him like that," Bach said. "Judge Wentworth."

"A woman," Alexis said. Everybody laughed again.

"I hope you're not offended," Joanna said to Quinn, sitting in Luke's bar after a day shift. They were waiting for AJ and Zander, separately. "It's become and in-joke of AJ and me. He says oh, I'll take you to Bermuda, or the Bahamas, but, maybe you'd rather I took you to Moscow. You know, the joke is me saying someone taking you to Russia is a sign of true love. So he says maybe I'd rather frolic in the freezing cold in Red Square than lie on the beach in the Bahamas."

"I'm not offended," Quinn said.

"It really is special to you, and I understand why."

"Having a semi-native there was part of it, and knowing a little of the language, how he taught me. Still, it could be nice, if we all went. Now that it's your little joke it could be special to you, too, in a way, only because of that."

"Makes sense."

"What can be more romantic than the preserved body of Lenin? Gazing on that together."

Joanna laughed aloud. "Nothing could be more romantic than that!"

"I got a very, very, very indirect proposal."

"Another one!"

"No. Too indirect." Quinn told Joanna what Zander had said.

"How would it work? You buy yourself a ring and ask if you can wear it?" Joanna perceived that it was not entirely serious.

"Centuries of male domination have taken hold of your mind, Joanna" Quinn said. "We wouldn't necessarily merely reverse the procedure. The ring may not belong to the procedure, where the woman proposes. I may even have to do without one for life."

"Could it have such a terrible effect?" Joanna giggled infectiously.

"Maybe that's why it's not done," Quinn said, catching the giggling.

"Perhaps it should be truly reversed," Joanna said. "In other words, you don't even ask. Especially in light of what Zander said about you choosing. You say, I've reviewed the candidates, and I'm happy to inform you that you've won."

They were speechless with merriment for a while.

AJ came upon them in this state.

"What is it?" he grinned.

"Let's run this by one of the affected gender," Joanna said.

"OK," Quinn said.

"Hypothetically, say Quinn wants to be a Sadie Hawkins and make a marriage proposal. Now how would you feel if you were not asked, but simply informed that you were the winner?"

He thought a moment. "Pretty good actually."

"Men! They are so ridiculous!" Joanna said. "So competitive! That's why he likes it!"

"But you understand them well," Quinn said. "You came up with that idea and it looks like it isn't that far off the mark."

Zander came in.

"What happened?" Quinn asked.

"We made this agreement that I'll stay at least 100 feet from him. I plan to go and buy a tape measure tonight," Zander said. "But if we end up at the same building for any reason, he's not to talk to me, even if I am closer than this 100 feet. It can be less than 100 feet if I'm in a place and he comes in. Then I just have to generally avoid him, not approach him. But he can't approach me or say anything without violating the order."

"Wow, you really made out well!" Quinn exclaimed. "An order that Sean not talk to you! I'd love to have that! They call that a punishment?"

Zander laughed. "Are you jealous?"

"Very!"

"There would be ways around it," AJ commented. "He could write you a note."

"That would be like the shyster," Zander said. "So he technically would not be in violation."

"You could keep the note, though," Joanna said. "It would at least be evidence against him."

"Yeah. Alexis might argue it still violates the order. Maybe the order even says 'communicate' rather than 'talk.'"

"He could make a toast, and say something publicly fine but that has meaning to you," AJ said. "My family members have done that on occasion."

"Which ones?" Zander asked.

"You can probably guess," AJ said. "Grandfather. I think Ned has done it."

"Have _you_ done it?" Joanna asked.

"I've thought about it," AJ grinned.

They all laughed.

"I'm sure the shyster is going to try at least one thing," Zander said. "To prove he's won. Something. And I'll have to figure out how not to deck him."

"Well, if I can help in any way," AJ said. "Just ask. I'm serious. The shyster gets on my nerves too. Would it help if you could know I am available as a hit man? You can hire me to deck him for you. Maybe that violates the order, but it will be very hard for the shyster to prove."

"Perfect," Quinn said. "Just perfect! I'm going to buy you a drink, AJ!"


	35. Chapter 35

**Part 35**

Branywyn and Kara sat at the kitchen table at Oksana's house one Friday night.

Zander was there with Peter and Tim, and Lucky. Lucky was going through some photos he had taken in an artistic vein. Zander looked at them then passed them around.

Kara thought it was a lot of fun to be in a room with four guys like this, and two of them old enough to be real men in her eyes.

They were all in black and white. "Is there something about photography that it's considered more serious in black and white?" Zander asked.

"For some reason, it seems that way," Lucky said. "Maybe it's because of there being so much advertising in color."

"OK. Yeah, it tells you up front this is not advertising," Zander said.

There were a few of Lucky's Dad, who was good about posing for him, Lucky said. A series of him attending to his bar were pretty interesting. There were some of his Mom at work, and one of his Mom and Oksana looking over some papers at a desk. "Real life," Zander said. There were several of the most willing of models, Lucky's little sister, and some of Lisa with the little sister. There were some photos of Lisa alone, a couple of them almost risque, but Zander decided not to tease Lucky about these in the event he considered them Works of Art. There were a few of Lisa and Diana, entitled "Sisters," and then a few of Rosa, in black and white.

"Rosa, you're a model!" Zander said to Rosa, who was making notes of what was in the pantry.

Rosa looked up from her pad of paper and laughed.

Diana came in. Peter introduced her to Branwyn and Kara.

"I'm a servant," Diana explained.

"Quaint," said Branwyn.

"She's Rosa's niece," Peter explained. "More like a member of the family, really."

"Is this house like 'Upstairs, Downstairs?'" Kara asked.

"What's that?" said Tim.

"And old public television BBC show about the wealthy family and the servants - the servants are the 'downstairs.'" Kara told him. "My mother loved it and she has the whole thing on video and throughout my childhood I've seen it several times."

"So you're an expert," said Zander.

"Naturally part of the plot is one of the guys from the family falling for a servant girl," said Kara.

Peter laughed. "This show is a little bit different, because that would be almost like incest in this case."

"Awwww," Diana said, and she went over to Peter and hugged him where he sat. "My little brother."

She danced away. Zander demanded that she hug her big brother, too. Diana went and hugged him as if it were unforgivable of her to forget. "Awwww," she said. "My big brother."

"What time is it?" Zander asked.

"Midnight," Diana said.

"I've got to go in a little while."

"Where, at this hour?" asked Rosa.

"I have a date."

Oksana came in. Without missing a beat, she said. "at this hour?"

"Yes. At the hospital on Quinn's break on midnight shift."

"What a strange date," Oksana said.

"He has a strange girlfriend," Tim said.

"You're a little brother, too," Diana teased him. "Of the worst possible kind, I might add."

Everyone laughed.

"Is it unusual for you, though?" Kara asked. "She is a nurse, so maybe you often meet like that."

"For the midnight shift it is," Zander said. "On day shift, it would be unusual too. It would be too busy with me at work or school. Usually it's the swing shift. I started out hating the swing shift. Quinn was at work during all my free time. Midnight was actually better, because she wasn't at work in the evening. Eventually we realized I could go to the hospital on her break in the swing shift."

"It's romantic," Kara said. "But it sounds even more romantic on midnight."

"You can go over with your camera, Lucky," said Branwyn. "Then take romantic looking shots and call it 'Midnight Shift.'"

"Not a bad idea," said Lucky. "I'll ask Quinn and Zander to do that some time."

"I'll tell her if I remember," Zander said.

"I think it would be pretty nice to be a servant here," Kara said. "Not a bad job at all."

"Do you have any job openings, Mom?" Zander said.

"I don't know," Oksana said. "Ask Rosa, she is staff chief."

Everyone laughed. Rosa looked as if she was really flattered. "I have one for window-washer," she said. "The ones who work here say they don't do windows."

"Servants can be so temperamental," Diana said. Everyone laughed again.


	36. Chapter 36

**Part 36 PG-13**

Kelly's was being closed up as Sean came home. He saw Skye come out of the Underground, the bar and music club that now existed in the basement.

"Do you need a cup of coffee?" he asked her.

"I haven't been drinking," she retorted.

"Come in anyway."

She acquiesced, not sure why.

He made her a cup of coffee as if he owned the place. She rather liked his way of owning a place. Especially when it was her parent's living room. That cracked her up. This place belonged to the Spencers. But he lived upstairs, so that made it his.

"How're things?" he asked her, leaning across the counter.

"I got a lecture from my parents again. On getting along with Emily."

"Why, don't you?"

"They always think I should be more of a guide to her."

"Well, why not? Wouldn't you like to be looked up to?"

"She doesn't need my advice."

"She doesn't think she needs it. But it must be valuable," he said, teasingly.

"I can see you don't think so. Well, here's some news for you. One of her revelations. She was telling me the other day about how she's always had a crush on Nikolas. When she was in high school, she did. He only considered her a friend. It made her sad. She met her first boyfriend after that. She dumped that guy for Zander, then Zander for Vinnie in Kentucky, then dumped Vinnie. Now she tells me she's always had a crush on Nikolas, so none of them lasted, because of that. She could never truly love them. So you may as well known now."

"Now I know for sure she's avoiding any relationship. See how she's picked out an unavailable guy? He's married now."

"Maybe you're right. I didn't look at it like that. Yeah, what's her problem with you anyway?"

"I'm just not what she wants. Again, why does she waste time with me, then? She could get out and meet people, so she'd run into her type. She doesn't want to."

"OK, Dr. Shrink, say you're right. How can I help her out with advice? I've got no experience with that!"

"Maybe she even needs a real shrink. To help her out. I could see where her condition keeps her out of trouble, but it can't be a very happy way to feel."

"Yeah, if you're right, my parents might be delighted to learn she has this condition, especially after they lived through my teen-aged years."

"Oh, I bet that was hell on them!"

She smiled, absently.

She looked up at him. He leaned over the counter and kissed her.

"You have so much nerve!" she declared. But she admired it.

"It was hell on them, for sure!" he said. He kissed her again.

He took her arm and walked her to the end of the counter until it was not between them and then pulled her to him and kissed her some more. 

"Mmmm," she relaxed, feeling the heat of his tongue, moving in, and all kinds of heat shooting through her body. She kissed him back and got more reaction. She thought Emily surely did have a problem of some kind. How did she manage resistance, after this?

As long as he kept his mouth shut, he wasn't bad at all.

He took her hand and they went upstairs.

"Wait for me in that room," Quinn told Zander. "You can lie down on the bed if you want."

He smiled. "What kind of break is this going to be?"

"You wish. I'll be there in a minute."

When she got to the room, he was sitting on the bed, looking around. He was not conscious yet that she was there. When he looked at her, she saw his eyes light up.

"Don't you recognize this room?" she asked.

"It's my room."

"Yes," she said. She took her lunch container and put in on the bed, pulling down the patient's tray. Then she set up lunch. "This is a picnic," she said.

"What a place for one, Nurse Question. Where are the ants?"

"Don't demand perfection," she said, smiling.

"What's this?"

"Be careful with that. It's the most important thing."

"Cornbread?"

"Well, sort of."

"That's what it looks like."

"It's called qomi. It's a Hopi tradition."

"I didn't know you were interested in Hopi traditions."

"Well, it's the only one that I could find that applies."

"Applies to what?"

"You'll see. I got a promotion."

"Really? That's great. You're happy about it?"

"Yeah, and I got a big raise. But I won't get to see this room all the time, so I need some more memories."

"But the patient was so awful!"

Quinn smiled. "With time, the awfulness fades. And the patient became less difficult."

"Finally you got the family medical history."

"And the rest of the history."

"What's the new assignment?"

"In the regular wards. But I'll be a floor manager, with nurses to supervise. And I'll learn a lot more, with the different types of cases. Since they don't have to be as serious as the ones that end up here, there is greater variety in that."

"That's really cool. I'm proud of you!"

"I have one last question for you in this room."

He put his arms around her. "More of the family history, Nurse Question?"

"Sort of. The family history to be. I love being with you. Anywhere. Even in foreign countries without a passport."

"I wouldn't mind being stuck with you either. In Russia or in Africa."

She laughed, and moved the tray aside to give him a kiss, and then said, "I like being in business with you. So I know the dating service is going to prosper. I know it, because we have natural talent. But we can never top the first match we made."

He smiled and stroked her hair. "You and me."

"See this qomi?"

"Yes," he said, laughing. "What are you up to now?"

"This is for you."

"OK. Thank you very much," he said, eyes dancing.

"I could only find one tradition for this type of thing. The Hopi tradition. The girl and the brave go on a picnic and the girl gives him a qomi. If you were a Hopi brave, you would be careful which girls you go on picnics with, because the girl might give you one of these. And if you were a Hopi man, you would know what that means."

"And being a first generation Russian-American, who does not know what that means, you will tell me, won't you, Indian Maiden?"

"Of course. This - - this cornbread, means, will you marry me?"

He smiled, and pulled her close and kissed her and kissed her.

"Where are you taking me on my honeymoon?" he asked.

"Wherever you want," she said. "You get to decide that one. It's only fair. There is one thing left to be done before we can be sure of this, though."

"Your diamond ring?"

"No, that doesn't follow the tradition."

"Oh! What is the Hopi tradition?"

"The young man's parents have to consent."

He laughed and hugged her. "They'll consent. They'll consent or I'll lock them up in the gulag. Escort them to Siberia myself. Lock them up together. Forever. And confiscate their American passports."

"Do you know already where you want to go on our honeymoon?"

"Ireland, of course."

Later, Zander asked, "Did you make this cornbread yourself?"

"Naturally! From a mix of a box."

"Is that valid? I don't want there to be any technical flaws to this marriage. Maybe you should do it again and grind the corn on a stone."

She giggled and kissed him, and then again and then again. "The Catholic Church should be OK with it," she said. "No prior marriages in the Catholic Church, right?"

"No! None for you either, right?"

"No. But if you're unsure maybe one of those Soviet wedding palaces. They must not have been really picky with the traditional technicalities."

"No. Maybe we will go to one of those for good measure."

He smiled, and stroked her cheek. "No, I know where it will be and I wouldn't have it anywhere else. Right at St. Michael's Parish, where you always thought it would be before you ever met any difficult patients or had to turn down any shrinks or shysters. Danny taking you down the aisle and Kathleen beaming like crazy. Joe standing there, and Tim and Brad among the ushers."

"I always knew there was part I couldn't imagine until I found the right shrink or shyster or whatever."

"Thanks, I love being a whatever."

"I love you whatever you end up being."

"I love you, nurse." He kissed her again.


	37. Chapter 37

**Part 37 PG-13**

Skye woke up feeling good. One thing you could say for this guy, he sure was - well, that could come from the most unexpected places.

He woke up and grinned at her.

"How are you?" she asked, when to her amazement, he didn't start talking. He looked like he was slow to wake up. She realized this was useful. He was not a morning person. Here was a time of day when he didn't have to get on your nerves.

"I'm alive," he said. He started to move.

"You better move faster," Skye said. "Ambulances don't go slower just because you are slow in the morning."

He grinned again. "You're a real comedienne, Skye."

"Oh, no!" she said. "Emily! What if she find out about this! I'm dead!"

"Oh, she won't care!"

"She'll care. It's an ownership issue. And my parents will say how dare you take anything your little sister wants."

"Number one, she doesn't want it. Number two, your little sister doesn't have a total right to everything she wants, especially which involves another person who could decide they'd rather have you than her!" Sean was starting to wake up now.

"She's the baby of the family, and the way they see it, she should get what she wants. She may not want you. But she surely doesn't want you to decide you don't want her."

"They favor her that much just because she's the baby?"

"Maybe. Anyway, they had to get married on account of me."

"Think about it Skye. If that were the case, then your younger brothers and sister owe their whole existence to you! Your parents must have decided they liked each other after all, to go on and have three more! In which case, they should be grateful to you."

"I like that argument, but they wouldn't buy it."

"Well, hell, they should."

"Then they want me to help her with school. She doesn't do that well."

"Do you have a degree?"

"Yes."

"What's it in, genius?"

"Public Relations."

"Have you ever worked in that?"

"For ELQ. And I got fired."

Sean whooped with laughter. "You got fired from the family company?"

"It's not as easy as it sounds," she said. "Everybody thinks you got the job because it's your family's company."

"Well, that is why you got the job, isn't it?"

"Yes, so you never really know if you could have gotten it otherwise. See how that can blow your confidence out of the water?"

"Yeah," he said, thinking. "That makes sense."

"And you lose the job for stupid things, too, that may not relate to job performance."

"Oh, I see. Yeah, family politics comes in."

"Then it gets your confidence down, and that combined with your pride makes it difficult to go looking like normal people. I could do it, I know. I have a hard time getting motivated."

"I think you could do it."

"How you would know is beyond me."

"You have charisma."

"Gee, thanks."

"You'll go far. Try! Don't let that family get you down!"

"What a cheerleader! Were you one of those male cheerleaders in college?"

"Hahahaha. Let's go down and get a cup of coffee." He had pulled on his clothes.

"I'm not going to be seen going down there with you!"

"OK, wait a few minutes after I've gone, then," he laughed.

"I don't think that they should be first," said Zander.

"Their consent!"

"Yes, Indian Maiden! But let's go to your family right away after. I'll feel awful while my parents know and they don't."

"Awww, it's not that bad! In the long run it doesn't matter, those few minutes."

Oksana smiled and was happy and gave Quinn and hug, and then hugged Zander. Peter beamed and teased them and laughed at them.

Rosa and the girls were happy and hugged them, too.

"We can get Lucky to take the pictures," Rosa said. "You think we can, Lisa?"

"Surely," she said.

"Not too artistic!" Zander said.

"OK, we'll make sure of that," Lisa said.

"You are gonna find her a ring, right, Sander?" Oksana asked.

"No, she doesn't get one, so long as you and Dad consent. I get the corn bread."

"What?" Diana said.

Zander explained.

"That's so romantic," Diana decided. 

Zander put his arm around Quinn. "Of course she's got to get the ring. None of the other girls in the hospital or anywhere for that matter will accept it as valid otherwise. We need to get general acceptance beyond one Indian tribe!"

"How come you had to propose, Q.?" Peter asked. "Isn't that his job?"

"I turned down two, before," Quinn said, "so he told me I had to ask. My past scared him right out of asking."

"I would have," Zander said. "Had you waited around too long."

"Oh, is that so?" Quinn said. "Well, you lose."

Everyone laughed while Quinn kissed him.

Zander felt even happier at the Connors' 

"Finally, I get to plan her wedding!" Kathleen said. She hugged Zander tight. He laughed. "Thank you!" she said to him. "I don't know how you did it, but you managed to get her to marry you!"

"It was tough when I'm not a shrink and I'm not a shyster," he said.

"Hold on!" Quinn said. "I had to get him to marry me." She explained it.

"Well, if that isn't so sweet," Kathleen said. "How romantic."

"Very clever, Zander!" Danny said. "That was a good thought. Telling her to take up the question. That's what she needed. Very smart. See, there's a way you're smarter than any shyster and it shows up right here!"

"Oh, can it, Dad!" Quinn said, affectionately, though.

"Congratulations," Joe said, with a quieter happiness. Quinn hugged him and Zander shook his hand. 

He looked happy. "I hope you like this, Joe," Zander said. "It means a lot to me."

"It's want she wants," Joe said. "Then it means a lot to me."

Quinn hugged him again.

The house was full of talk and laughter. A little later, Zander went down the hallway and looked at the pictures there, the ones of Quinn and her brothers as children, and the one of Quinn and Joe. He looked at them. He knew her wedding picture would end up here, too.

Quinn came up and put her arms around him. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

"That your wedding picture goes here eventually and I can hardly believe it'll be mine." She laid her head on his shoulder and hugged him. He put his arms around her, too, and they looked at the pictures.


	38. Chapter 38

**Part 38**

Sergei took Zander and Quinn out to celebrate. Peter was allowed to come along.

"See how much good you've done, Sander?" Quinn asked him. "Oksana let Pete come along with no fuss."

Sergei said he consented, amused.

"That's good," Quinn said. "You wouldn't believe the threats he was making against you if you didn't."

"He cannot possibly do any better for a bride," said Sergei.

"He can't have better in-laws, either," Peter said. "Isn't that right, Q.?"

Quinn smiled at him.

"No, I couldn't," Zander agreed.

Zander and Quinn were lying in bed the next morning, at the gate house.

"Do you want to live here first, for a little while?" Zander asked her.

"Yeah," she said. "For sentimental reasons, this is the best first house."

"Yes, we decorated our first New Year's Tree here. And you gave me the little shamrock ornament."

"We had a long talk, on Thanksgiving," Quinn remembered. "You didn't live here yet. You didn't live here for the tree, either. You just put up the tree."

He smiled. "I remember. And on New Year's, you made up a tradition about kissing your worst patient. Better not do that again. I don't know who it was this year, but you can't kiss him!"

"OK, that tradition dies out fast! And you kissed me the first time here, reading _Ulysses_."

"Oh, good old James Joyce. Can we see his house in Ireland?"

"I don't know. You can kiss the Blarney Stone. That gives you the gift of gab."

"So long as it doesn't come out as the same gift the shyster appears to have."

Quinn laughed. She snuggled against him again. "Then you made a Happy New Year sign in Russian."

"You asked me if I was happy."

"I did?"

"You don't remember? I do. Nobody ever asked me that."

"Were you happy?"

"I think I was. Yeah, I told you I was."

"And this is where I spent my first night with you. Right here."

He leaned over and kissed her. "There's only one thing, though. It could seem like it's my house. It might not feel like it's yours, to you."

She kissed his cheek. "You're sweet to even think of that. It'll be OK."

"You can do whatever you want to it."

She stroked his hair, then kissed him.

"It feels like ours," she said. "I think it always has been."

Sergei went to the ELQ board meeting.

He had been to a lot of board meetings for many corporations in his life. None were so amusing as those of ELQ corporation. The posturing and the attempt to manipulate and control each other was blatant. It seemed that they were interested in that - much more interested in that than in the corporate business. The attempts to get Sergei to sell his shares to them were hilarious, almost, to Sergei. He usually smiled and didn't answered them.

Edward Quartermaine was always there. His wife never was. Alan and Monica were usually there, having enough control of their time to attend, though they were doctors. The younger son was a doctor and usually couldn't make it. The elder son and elder daughter were usually there. Then there was the younger daughter, she was there most of the time lately. She went to PCU this semester. Somebody usually asked her about it. Another grown-up grandson of Edward's usually showed up, too.

Then there was Jasper Jax. He waffled between trying to ignore Sergei and trying to buy him out. One day he was polite, another tough, another friendly, another threatening. However, he had no threats that were going to get Sergei to do what he wanted.

They were milling around, drinking orange juice and coffee, waiting for Edward to get there to start the meeting, bluffing, manipulating and threatening each other, as usual.

"I was thinking of looking for another job. Outside the family company," Sergei heard Skye telling A.J.

"Use that public relations degree?" AJ said. "Good idea."

"What kind of work did you do?" Sergei asked her.

"I was the communications director," she said. "And a publicity assistant. Titles like that. I was good at it, but I got fired because of personal reasons."

"That could be," AJ said.

"AJ!" Skye protested. "Would you mind supporting my career the tiniest bit?"

"OK, you were good enough at it."

"Enough!"

"Very good enough."

"Ahhh!" Skye marched off.

Later, after the meeting, Sergei saw Skye in the driveway. She was going to her brand new Mercedes sports car. She looked at Sergei's Porsche. "Nice car," she said.

"You really looking to work in publicity?" he asked, with an air of innocence.

"I was thinking about it."

"I got a company, Alter Corporation. Come see me in my office some time."

"Where's your office?"

He told her.

Skye watched his car as he drove off. She wondered what he was trying to pull.


	39. Chapter 39

**Part 39 PG-13**

"So he's a Russian pirate," Sean said to Skye. "Still, he has a lot going on. He's pretty bright. You could talk to him. Your family wouldn't kick you out for talking to him, would they? You could tell them you were spying for them."

She had gotten a room at the Port Charles Hotel. In her name, and had him sneak up to it. They were sitting in the Jacuzzi.

"Not a bad idea," she said. Then, she leaned over and started kissing him. It was a great way to get him to shut up.

He started to pull her out of the Jacuzzi. He was sitting on the edge of it. But they got no further than that.

He was certainly well endowed, Skye observed. That and his amazing (for him) propensity to shut up while having sex (Skye wondered if this was the only time he ever did) made him a ten in the sex department, at least. She felt good after she'd been with him. Way less tense, and more energetic.

"I see why that nurse dated you while she was in school," Skye told him, later.

"Why is that?" he smirked.

"Well, you're good for one thing, anyway," she said. "Well, for all I know, you may be a good lawyer, too."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence," he said. "Were you a cheerleader, by any chance?"

"No," she said. "I call it as I see it."

"Oh, a lawyer's nightmare," he said.

The nurses surrounded Quinn and exclaimed at her diamond ring. This was something they would normally do for any engagement ring, but in Quinn's case, they had to add all kinds of comments about somebody managing to land the queen of non-commitment. Quinn survived these, since they were all somehow backhandedly complimentary of Zander.

"Who ever thought we'd see you wearing one of those!" teased Teri Hayes. "It's beautiful, though. Must be some guy, getting you to commit!"

This was typical.

"Don't fret," Joanna said. "You were right to wait for the right guy to come along."

Later, she saw Paul in the cafeteria. He had heard. "Congratulations," he said.

"Thank you," she said politely, too happy to be annoyed, and even feeling gracious toward Paul, as his breaking up with her had in a way led to her present happiness, and furthermore, he was an angel compared to Sean.

Quinn and Zander took Alexis to the Outback, so they could tell Alexis and Jerry.

"I'm so thrilled," Alexis said. "Totally excited for you. I couldn't be happier. You're so perfect for each other. It's an inspiration."

"Really?" Quinn asked, and she looked over at Jerry coming over with a bottle of champagne he had insisted on getting for the occasion.

"Really," Alexis smiled.

"You'll be one of the bridesmaids, won't you?" Quinn asked.

"Me?" Alexis said. "I'd love to but - I figured you'd have so many friends your age."

"I'd rather have you. You have something to do with it, somehow," Quinn said.

"I'd be glad to, then," Alexis said. She told Jerry about this when he came back.

"I need you," Zander said to Jerry. "If you're willing. I don't have a long list to get ushers from."

"Glad to oblige," Jerry said. He and Alexis looked at each other. Quinn and Zander, seeing that, exchanged glances, too.

"Thank you, both of you," Quinn said. "I hope it will be an inspiring experience for you."

"We set up a new place, under Kelly's," Sergei told Skye, at his office. "It will have music. Original, live, music. We came up with a name for it. The Underground. We think that wasn't too original. Somebody else said we will call it the London Underground. It has a theme, for that. We went with that, because it is a bit more creative."

"Yes," Skye said. "It is. You can have the theme - the names of the stops, or the colors from the lines - a representation of the underground map on the walls."

"Good ideas," Sergei said. "And anyway, we need publicity for it. Make it the cool place to go, so everybody wants to come there. Somebody like you, being there, will make it cool like that."

"I don't know if that's true," Skye said. "I'm not the standard of cool around here. But I have some experience with publicity. My family just won't let me use it."

Sergei was at the Outback Bar later. He told Jerry and Alexis: "She want to prove herself, against that family."

"That family," Alexis said, sitting at the bar, writing on a yellow pad, "will have a fit if they find out she works for you."

"So exactly," Sergei said. "They will have a fit. It will be interesting to see, as always."

Alexis threw her head back and positively laughed. Jerry grinned. "I think you're trying to give that old man, Edward, a heart attack, Sergei."

AJ congratulated Quinn, and said he hoped she'd be happy. "Zander seems to stay out of trouble now," he commented. "I mean, after all, he's not such a bad guy. You've been a good influence."

"He doesn't need a good influence from me," she said. "When your sister was with him, he had no family. He's got all that back now."

"That's been a good thing for him, too, then," AJ said.

AJ told Emily, Sean, Skye and Jason about Quinn and Zander being engaged. His parents and grandfather were fuming on in a different part of the room about the ELQ board meeting earlier in the day.

Emily looked blank. She was just happy that these days, Sean had dropped all his pushiness in the sex department.

Jason looked as if there was nothing he could care less about.

Skye looked surprised. Sean looked surprised too, but said. "Quinn must be very happy with him, to agree to marry him," he said.

"Oh, yeah," said AJ, "the whole hospital grapevine said it would take a miracle to land Quinn because she had already turned down a couple of guys. Zander was so clever he told her he wouldn't ask, and it would be up to her."

"Clever," Sean mused. "Yeah, that's damn clever."

Sean came up behind Skye. "Go away," she whispered. "Do you want Emily to suspect something?"

"Oh, come on, Skye," he whispered back. "Go right up to her and tell her. If she complains, remind her of her undying love for Nikolas. Now that Zander's taken, she'll see more in him, too."

"Very funny," Skye said, "make sure your keep your shyster mouth shut."

"Lawyers work with words," he said. "I'll try to be quiet," he added. "I know how much you like that."

"Thank you," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now quit hanging around me before they notice."

Emily didn't like that Zander was getting married. "It seems so odd," she told Nikolas, on the phone later, calling him from her room.

"It does," Nikolas said. "When you think back to those days, to think he'd end up marrying a professional woman like that. From what I know of him in the last year or so, though, it doesn't seem as strange. You don't know that version of Zander. The one with the parents, and the brother. You only knew the alone, drug-dealing version. Being a former girlfriend, you don't get to know the new version."

"How can anyone be that different?" she asked. "It's not like his family are different people. They're just here, rather than there. Why does that improve him?"

"Social support system," Nikolas said. "He didn't have it. How are you and Sean?"

"OK," Emily said. "Nothing really changes. He's been a little less pressuring, though."

"That's good," Nikolas said. "Call us and maybe we can do a double date sometime."


	40. Chapter 40

**Part 40**

The London Underground had a tables named for tube stops. This was going to make it easy on the servers. There were openings for bouncers and bartenders and managers. It was an exciting thing for local bands – a new place to try to get a gig.

Yvonne Edwards was confident that her grunge rock bank could get a gig anywhere, locally at least. She'd already played in two barns and one illegal party.

Her father was a well-heeled lawyer. Years ago he had broken off from Baldwin & Baldwin, taking many of their big clients with him. They sued him. Evidently the case had eventually settled.

Now his firm was about half the size of Baldwin & Baldwin, but it made more money, since it took on middle and working class clients in their suits against bigger companies of the type Baldwin & Baldwin represented. Perhaps it was their recognition that if nobody sued their clients, they wouldn't be needed, that prompted Baldwin to tolerate and even make amends with Edwards.

Sitting on her father's lap when she was little and reading a case he had been reading, Yvonne had laughed at the dissenting opinion. Her father had explained to her that the dissenters wrote their own opinion to make their views known, when they were outvoted.

Yvonne had always liked that, so she called her band the Dissenters. Most people were too ignorant to know what that meant, so explaining it gave her something to tell the local rock press.

After her graduation from Port Charles High, she'd started the band, while going to PCU in deference to her father's assumption she should go to college. But he seemed to understand that she was an artist, not an academic. Eventually he became a big supporter of her musical career.

She had gotten, over months, Toby Breyer on guitar, Ian Crane on Bass, and Wylie Doyle on drums.

Of her parents' record collection, Yvonne had always been inspired by the Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde was her heroine.

Yvonne and Wylie went down to the club before it opened. It was abuzz with start-up activity.

A woman in an expensive designer suit sat at the end of the bar.

"Who can we talk to about getting a playing gig?" Yvonne asked her.

"The manager's over there," the woman pointed him out. Then an older man in an expensive suit came over to her and asked her, in a foreign accent, how the publicity plans were going.

The manager said he would consider auditioning them tomorrow. He had a few other bands who were interested. That was no surprise.

Yvonne and Wylie stopped in the coffee shop above. Drinking coffee, they saw a tall man in a business suit, who must have been a lawyer. He was boasting to the girl behind the counter that he had a jury trial going and that the jurors were sucking up everything he said like a vacuum sucks up dust.

That everything he said was dust had apparently not occurred to him.

The boxcar was now an art studio, and when the mood hit V. or Elizabeth, they went there to do some work.

They got many visits from Joe Quinn, who ran errands for them, and from Taryn Polk, who either did that too or asked them for advice, or posed for them, alternatively. 

Today, Taryn was concerned about the upcoming homecoming dance and the burning question of whether or not Jeremy Marshall would invite her to it. They had broken up because he wanted to see other girls, in the summer, but now "other girls" seemed to include Taryn, whom he now asked out on occasion.

Taryn also had a problem of whom to invite to Uncle Paul's wedding as her date.

"Do you think I should actually ask Jeremy?" she asked V. and Elizabeth, who didn't usually mind talking to her some while they painted. They were both there, now.

"If you want to," V. said. "If you think you'll have a good time."

"No, ask somebody else," was Elizabeth's advice. Elizabeth was always in favor of moving on from Jeremy.

"I don't know who to ask," Taryn said.

"There's a schoolful of boys," V. observed.

"I guess there's Greg Wentworth, he might go," said Taryn. "Maybe Peter Smith would go. He's nice, and wouldn't take it wrong."

"Ask either one," said Elizabeth.

"You're nuts, Skye," AJ said. "Mom and Dad and Grandfather don't care much about rock and roll clubs, though. But the Emily thing, that's no good. And I don't trust that shyster further than that window. You should check the room for bugs.

"I never thought of that," said Skye. "But it would be like him. He makes like Emily doesn't care, but I'm sure he'd have no problem threatening to tell Mom and Dad and he would think of how he needs evidence."

"Then what are you hanging out with this guy for?"

"I can't explain it to you, AJ, but maybe there's something I can say. If he tells them I'll just say I was setting him up to prove to them that Emily should have nothing to do with him. But how do you check a room for bugs?"

"Gee, I don't have much experience with that," AJ said.

Sergei was kinder than Skye had imagined. He listened to her concerns about her parents and she ended up confiding in him that she needed to check somebody's rooms for bugs.

He didn't ask her why, and she respected him for that. He also said that as a defecting Soviet, he had been paranoid about things like that and knew a little bit about it.

Sean had bragged about trying a jury trial. Skye went by the courthouse and peaked into the courtrooms via the windows of the courtroom doors. She saw Sean sitting at a counsel table with a little old lady who looked like the plaintiff Sean had described as his client in the personal injury suit he was trying.

Sure the coast was clear, she and Sergei went up to Sean's room. Skye had taken Emily's keys as if by mistake. Sure enough, Emily was not organized enough to clear her key ring of keys that she had used years ago. One of them opened the door.

After looking through the room, both satisfied that there were no bugs in it, at least insofar as Sergei would be able to detect them, they went out only for Skye to realize that if Sean had a tape recorder or video camera, he might keep it with him. She remembered something he said about _sub rosa_ investigations, where they filmed people doing things they said they couldn't do.

But if this apparatus was mobile, she'd have a better chance of finding it as he came into or left a room. She could send him down for coffee or get him to take a shower before she left. Or make like she was leaving and then come back in.

She decided she had things under control.


	41. Chapter 41

**Part 41**

"I really don't understand it," Bernard Bach said to Melinda Delaney. "The client's injuries were minimal, the impact was minimal. How did Monroe get a $250,000 verdict? That must be the most gullible jury ever impaneled."

"His ego was big enough already," Melinda said, stirring her coffee, with a big smile. "He's going to be unbearable!"

"It was the Southern charm," the could hear Sean's voice in the hallway.

"See?" Melinda said.

Bach laughed. "I wonder if there is a gag around here somewhere."

But the firm big shots were very proud, and took Sean out to lunch. Every last secretary, paralegal and file clerk was buzzing about the Big Verdict. The client came in to talk about how wonderful Sean was. All afternoon, Sean was in one lawyer's office and then the next, either comparing notes (with the ones who had tried jury cases before) or boasting (to the ones who hadn't).

All in all, it was a great day for Sean Monroe.

Skye worked at getting flyers designed and distributed around town. A band called the Dissenters had been hired on for the opening night gig. She went to the Port Charles Weekender and talked to the editor about doing an article on the opening of the London Underground and the Dissenters. She went to the Dockside Magazine to invite its whole staff to the opening and convince them to do an article on the club and the Dissenters after attending.

She went to Deception to talk them into having several models show up for the opening and mentioned that magazine photographers would be there.

It was really all very interesting. She talked for an hour with the band's lead singer, to get a feel for what the band was like.

She made sure flyers were sent around the PCU campus. She had a local company make a logo for the club, then ordered T-shirts, then got the manager to organize a contest where people would "win" these T-shirts. She went down to L & B Records to give everybody there a free pass for the evening.

She was having the time of her life. It was interesting, and she could be creative. Not like staid ELQ, where everything was pre-determined and set in stone.

Yvonne and the band rehearsed in an old warehouse at the edge of town like they always did. Then to relax, they'd go to Jake's and shoot pool. One night they wandered into Kelly's for no particular reason, and drank coffee instead of alcohol.

Wylie noticed the tall lawyer, the one he and Yvonne had heard say that a jury was sucking up his words like a vacuum sucked up dust, coming down the steps. A young girl followed him. She had a backpack on, and it looked like she was a college student. She put it down on the counter. She looked like she was arguing with the dust-maker.

He walked out, saying, "I've got to meet them in a few minutes." She looked disgusted, and followed him out, saying, "I wish you would have told me before I came all the way over here." She followed him out, leaving her backpack on the counter.

Wylie got up and went for the backpack. He went outside with it. She was looking after the lawyer, with a look of impatient aggravation. "You forgot your backpack," he said, holding it out to her.

"Thank you," she said.

"That your boyfriend?" Wylie asked. "He looked like he was getting on your nerves."

"Just a little," Emily said.

"That'll happen sometimes," he said. He smiled.

Emily thought he was cute.

"Well, thanks," she said.

"Any time," he said. He turned and went back in.

Sarah Webber got off the plane. Elizabeth ran up to her and hugged her. "This is Paul," she said, beaming. Sarah hugged him, though it was the first time she had ever seen him.

"So this is Sarah," Paul said. "I have heard a lot about you."

"I've heard a lot about you," Sarah said. "I'm so happy for both of you. It's so exciting. I bet Gran is spending most of her time on the wedding."

"She sure is," Paul said. "This is the most planned wedding of the century. Nothing can go wrong."

"When are Mom and Dad coming?" Sarah asked Elizabeth.

"Next week," Elizabeth said. "So we have plenty of time to have a blast."

Sarah laughed. "I'm going to plan the bachelorette party, as soon as the jet lag passes."

"First thing is to have your dress fitted," Elizabeth said, grinning. "Then you can plan the wild party."

"Not too wild, you understand," Paul said.

Skye leaned against Sean in his bed in his room over Kelly's. "That was pretty cool," she said.

Sean just smiled at the ceiling.

"Oh no!" Skye said.

"What have you thought of now?" Sean smiled at her. He pulled gently at a lock of her hair.

"Emily has a key to this room! She could walk in any time!"

"It used to be her room," Sean said. "But if they let her keep a key, they aren't the best landlords. Do they let somebody who leaves walk off with a key, without changing the locks?"

Suddenly, Skye froze. She realized she shouldn't have brought this up with him. How was she going to get out of this without revealing that she had conducted a search of his room?

She realized it was not too late.

"I think they do," she said. "Emily said once she still had her key."

"Maybe it won't fit," Sean said.

"Maybe not," Skye said. "Did she ever come in here with it?"

"No," Sean said. "I don't think she would, though. I'm sure she'd knock, even if she knew she had a key."

"Really, you're sure about that?" Skye asked. She felt further relieved when she realized that Emily probably didn't realize or remember that she had a key to a room at Kelly's. If she had, she'd probably have taken it off of her key ring rather than carry around the University of Kentucky and elsewhere for a year.

"Sure," Sean said. He turned and gave her a kiss.

"Ok," she said, running her fingers through his hair.

Joanna and AJ met Quinn and Zander at the Outback.

"I'm very short on ushers," Zander said. "It seems my male bonding needs work. Anyway, if you're going to come to the wedding with Joanna anyway, would you do it? Be an usher? I'll understand if you can't. Your family might not like it."

"I'll do it," AJ said. "My family can lump it."

Joanna squeezed AJ's arm. She was proud of him. He had been telling his family to take a hike on one thing or another quite often lately.

"Who else will be in the wedding?" Joanna asked Quinn.

"Jerry and Alexis," Quinn said. "Our first match."

"Tim and Brad," Zander added.

"Lisa and Diana," Quinn said.

"You don't have to do that, Quinn," Zander said. "I know you've probably got so many friends from college and high school you want in it."

"No, only one. I always knew to leave room for the groom's sisters, silly. So Lisa and Diana only take that space. And we're still working on the match of Tim and Diana. Lisa will be stuck with Brad."

"So who will go with AJ? Pete is the best man. That leaves you one more."

"Joanna goes with AJ. The maid of honor goes with Pete. That is Valerie Edwards."

"Valerie Edwards!" exclaimed Zander, "Who in the blazes is that?"

"My best friend from junior high school, my friend from high school. She's going to be my maid of honor and I'm going to be her maid of honor. I'll make sure you meet her before the wedding."

"Meet her, I've never even heard of her!"

"You don't know everything about me, yet, do you?" Quinn smiled. "I have dozens of friends like that you've never heard of. Valerie is in grad school or working in New York City. It's hard to keep in touch. But in the long run, we do."

"I guess I don't have to know everything now. I know the important stuff. I have a lifetime to find out the rest. Still, your friend so close that she's going to be your maid of honor, well, that's different."

"This goes way back. It's Joanna and Lisa and Diana and Alexis that come from now. Only one spot reserved for people who go way back. And you have a brother. If you didn't, who would know who your best man was going to be."

"You're right. I think I might have asked Joe to do it."

"A kind thought."

"It appears that this wedding party has been identified," Joanna said. "I'm honored to be in it."

"Me too," added AJ.


End file.
